All In
by EmAino
Summary: Sequel to Ante Up. Danny gets kidnapped, leading to a final showdown between the Montecito crew and some of their worst enemies.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: First of all, my other fic "To Have Loved" is being discontinued for the time being. I just ran out of steam on it. Second of all, as this is a sequel to it, it would help to have read my fic "Ante Up". Third of all, not my characters and not claiming that they are, so don't sue.

* * *

All In

* * *

Chapter One

* * *

"Thanks for the ride." an appreciative Mary said as she stepped out of a very familiar yellow Camaro convertible. Shutting the door behind her, the red-haired woman smiled at Danny, who had stepped out of the driver's side. "That piece of crap has been giving me problems for awhile now." Sighing, she shook her head. "Don't know why it decided to break down now." 

"Maybe after work I should come and take a look at it." Danny suggested, turning the alarm on his car on as the two headed for the employees' entrance to the Montecito. "Delinda doesn't get off until late tonight anyway."

"If you wouldn't mind." Mary blushed, reaching into her purse for her badge.

Danny was about to comment that he wouldn't mind helping his best friend since childhood out when he heard a noise from behind them. Turning around, he looked at the empty parking lot, trying to figure out what he had heard.

"What's up?" Mary asked, noticing Danny's change in demeanor.

However, McCoy didn't have time to answer her question. A group of men had appeared from where they had presumably been hiding. Knowing that this couldn't mean anything good, Danny gritted his teeth and stepped protectively in front of Mary.

"Get inside." he whispered to her, keeping his eyes on the strange men.

"You Danny McCoy?" one of the men demanded.

"Who wants to know?" Danny fired back, getting into a fighting stance.

"Danny." Mary pleaded quietly, putting a hand on her friend's shoulders.

"Get out of here." Danny repeated, glancing back at her.

"That's him." another one of the men confirmed, looking at some sort of paper in his hands. "Matches the picture perfectly."

"What do you assholes want?" Danny demanded, wishing that Mary would follow his instructions and get to safety.

"You." the first man answered, crossing his arms across his chest as the third and fourth man approached Danny. "Now, we can do this two ways: the easy way or the hard way?"

"Given those choices..." Danny shrugged before punching one of the men. As the other approached, McCoy managed to grab him by his neck and slam his head into the trunk of a nearby car. "Is that all you guys got?"

"Get him!" the first man encouraged as the second man rushed Danny.

This man was bigger and had more muscle than Danny, but McCoy was quicker. The burly man threw a punch at him with all of his might, but Danny managed to dodge it. A second punch quickly followed the first, directed at the abdomen, but he managed to catch this one right before it struck him.

"Danny!" Mary suddenly called out, earning Danny's immediate attention. His brown eyes widened with horror as he noticed the goon he had punched earlier was now holding onto the red-haired woman.

"Mary!" a worried Danny exclaimed, allowing the giant of a man in front of him to get a free shot to the stomach. Letting out a groan, McCoy doubled over in pain. "Ain't so tough now, are you?" the man whose head Danny had slammed into the car commented, holding an old tail pipe he had procured from somewhere. Mary could barely watch as the man swung the pipe like a bat, hitting Danny in the side of the head.

"Danny!" she screamed as she watched her friend fall to the side, blood beginning to trickle down from his temple. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. "DANNY!"

"Shut up, bitch!" the first man ordered, walking past Danny, who was still on the ground but had rolled onto his stomach, and backhanding her across the face. If the man behind her hadn't been holding her up, Mary probably would have fallen to the ground herself.

"Mary!" an incensed Danny growled, immediately getting to his feet. The man with the pipe and the burly man grabbed his arms before he could do any damage. "You son of a bitch! I'll make you..."

"Man in your position shouldn't make threats." the first man interrupted, hitting him in the stomach with the pipe. Groaning, Danny tried to double over in pain, but found it nearly impossible with the two men holding onto his arms so tight. He had barely enough time to deal with the pain in his stomach when he felt the man in front of him punch him square in the jaw. "You'd better be worth a good payoff with all of the trouble you've caused us."

"Danny..." Mary whimpered from where she stood helplessly by.

"Shut it!" the man holding Mary ordered, holding onto her tighter. He looked at the man in front of Danny. "Hadn't we better wrap this up? You-Know-Who said that we didn't want to have to deal with Deline."

"Yeah," the first man laughed, reaching into his back pocket. "And the boss seems to know what he's talking about, since he said that this one would be a problem."

"Who are you working for?" Danny demanded, looking at the man in front of him right in the eyes.

"You'll find out soon enough." the first man promised wickedly, plunging a syringe into Danny's neck. "But first, it's nighty-night time for you, pretty boy."

"No!" a horrified Mary gasped as she watched Danny slowly lose consciousness and become limp in the arms of the men holding him.

"Load him in the van!" the first man ordered, nodding his head behind him. "Make sure his restraints are on tight, in case he wakes up during his little trip."

"Right." the men holding Danny nodded as they dragged his limp body away.

"What have you bastards done to him?" a tearful Mary demanded, struggling to get away from the man holding her. She had to help Danny!

"Relax, babe." the first man promised, sticking the syringe into Mary's neck and injecting her with whatever liquid was left. "He's no longer your concern."

"We really just going to leave her here?" the other man asked, letting Mary slowly fall to the floor. "The boss told us not to leave any witnesses behind."

"Exactly." the first man replied, pulling a pistol out of his friend's back pocket and tossing it to him. "It sucks that a pretty girl like her has to die, but..." Footsteps were suddenly heard, fast approaching the pair from the other side of the door. "Shit! Get to the van!"

"You bastards!" Ed growled as the door to the casino suddenly flew open. As the two thugs turned and started running for their getaway car, the gray-haired man gave chase with a look of murder in his blue eyes. "Get your asses back here!"

"Mary!" a worried Mike exclaimed as he followed in Ed's wake. However, unlike the older man, the bald, African American man stopped and knelt down by his redheaded friend. Gently, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her, trying to wake her up. "Mary! Come on, baby!" Hearing the sounds of rubber squealing against the pavement, he looked up. "Ed!"

"Damn it!" Deline's loud, frustrated voice echoed through the parking lot in response. As he walked back towards Mike and the unconscious Mary, he sighed and shook his head. "I couldn't get to them in time. How is she?"

"She's been drugged." Mike replied, shaking his own head. "No telling how long she'll be out." He got to his feet and looked at Ed. "Shouldn't we go after those guys, Mr. D.? My car's not too far..."

"Nah," Ed interrupted, still staring in the direction the van had gone. "Our first priority is to get Mary somewhere safe and checked out by a doctor. Danny will be all right for now"

* * *

"In here!" Ed instructed, opening the door to his office so that Mike, who was right behind him, would have no problem carrying the still unconscious Mary in. Aware of the awkward stares many of his employees sending him, Deline quickly followed Mike inside, letting the door slam shut behind him. "Set her down on the couch." He immediately headed for his desk and picked up the telephone. "Yeah, I need the hotel doctor up here immediately. Thanks, sweetheart." 

"Shouldn't we call the cops?" Mike asked, looking from Mary to Ed.

"What in the hell for?" Ed fired back.

"Uh, call me crazy," Mike replied sarcastically, "But so they can go after those guys and rescue Danny before something happens to him?"

"No cops." Ed vehemently shook his head. "We can handle this, Mikey."

"My mistake." Mike muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes for emphasis. Admittedly, he didn't know why he had expected a different answer as Ed (and Danny too) NEVER called the cops in a situation like this. However, Cannon found himself worrying about his friend's safety, so the answer still irritated him.

"Why don't you..." Ed started before finding himself being interrupted by the telephone. "Hold that thought. Hello?"

"It's been too long, Ed." an obviously mechanically disguised voice replied from the other line.

"Who the hell is this?" Ed demanded, not feeling up to any games.

"You know who I am. I'm the person that's got your protégé."

"What do you want?" Ed said through gritted teeth, gripping the phone tighter. It took everything the older man had not to start cussing this mystery person out.

"You'll find that out in time." the voice reassured, "As well as how to get your Danny Boy back."

"Who..." was all Ed managed to say before hearing a dial tone from the other line. Letting out a growl of frustration, he slammed the phone back down on his desk. "That mother..."

"Who was that?" a curious Mike asked as the door to the office opened.

"Is it true?" Sam asked, looking back and forth at Mike and Ed.

"Who got attacked in the parking lot?" a more-to-the-point Delinda added, following the raven-haired casino host inside. However, her question was answered the minute she spotted Mary lying on the couch. "Oh my God! MARY!"

"Mary?" a surprised Sam repeated, looking over to the couch herself. "What...Who..."

"Who would do this to her?" Delinda interrupted, kneeling down next to red-haired woman and stroking her hair. "Mary's never harmed anyone."

"Sweetheart..." Ed began but found himself trailing off.

"Where's Danny?" Delinda asked, thinking about her current boyfriend and his close friendship with Mary. She looked around the office as if Ed and Mike were stashing him somewhere. "Is he already out hunting down the guys that did this?" Upon noticing that Mike was unwilling to meet her eyes, she turned towards her father. "Daddy, please tell me that he knows what happened."

"That's just the thing, sweetheart." Ed sighed, walking over and putting his hands on his daughter's shoulders. Instantly, Delinda stood up again. "Mary wasn't the intended victim. Danny was."

"Danny?" Delinda repeated slowly as if she didn't understand Ed.

"Well, where is he?" a concerned Sam asked, "Is he all right? He's not hurt too badly, is he?"

"We don't know." Mike sighed, putting his arms around Sam.

"What do you mean you don't know?" a tearful Delinda replied, looking into her father's eyes. "Daddy? Where's Danny?"

"I'm afraid that he's been kidnapped, honey." Ed replied, taking Delinda's hands in his own and kissing them. "But don't worry, all right? I promise you that I'm going to get him back. He's going to be all right."

"I know." Delinda nodded through her tears. "I know you will." She turned her attention back to Mary. "You have to, Daddy."

"Mike." Ed said suddenly, looking at Delinda and Mary.

"Yeah, Mr. D.?" Mike asked from where he was comforting Sam.

"See to things around here, will you?" Ed instructed, heading for the door to his office. "I've got some ideas about who may have done this that I want to check out."

"You got it." Mike nodded his head.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Because I'm an idiot, I forgot to mention last time that this takes place somewhere in the middle of season four...wherever you think it's appropriate.

* * *

Chapter Two

* * *

"Where..." Mary said weakly a few hours later, opening her eyes to see the blurry form of a person sitting beside her. From what she could tell, the person had long blonde hair and she (Mary) had been moved from the parking lot she remembered being in last. Yeah, Mary thought, last thing I remember was being in the parking lot with... 

"Danny!" a panicked Mary exclaimed, sitting upright immediately. Although her vision was clearing, her head was throbbing and a slight dizzy feeling overcame her as she tried to look around. Somehow, she had ended up on the couch in Ed's office with Delinda sitting by her side and Mike hanging about. "Where's Danny?"

"Shh." Delinda encouraged, putting her hands on Mary's shoulders. "It's okay. Try to relax, Mary." A smile crossed the blonde's features as Mary slowly laid back down. "It's good to see that you're awake though. The doctor didn't know how long you'd be out."

"Where's Danny?" Mary repeated, looking at Delinda.

"He's..." Delinda started but found herself trailing off. Feeling a new wave of sadness wash over her as she thought about her boyfriend, the blonde-haired woman closed her eyes and turned her head away. "We don't know where he is."

"Oh, God." Mary whispered in disbelief.

"Don't worry about it though, Mary." Mike reassured, walking over to join the two ladies. "Ed's already taken off to investigate some leads, so I'm sure that we'll have Danny back in no time."

* * *

Were his eyes even open? It seemed to Danny that he was awake, as his head felt like someone was taking a hammer to it repeatedly, but wherever he might be was far too dark to tell for sure. The only sound he could hear was air coming from a vent somewhere coupled with his own pained groaning. Putting a hand to his forehead, he closed his eyes tightly and tried to remember what had happened to him. 

"Mary!" he suddenly exclaimed, sitting up right as the memories of being attacked in the parking lot suddenly came back to him. He looked around the darkened room, which was a useless effort, as he couldn't yet see anything. "If those bastards...MARY!"

Slowly getting up from wherever he had been laying, Danny gritted his teeth as his head let him know that it clearly disagreed with the idea. His arm outstretched, McCoy began exploring the room, trying to find any clue as to where he was or who had him. Anything that might help him escape and make those guys pay for what they had to done to him and especially to Mary.

* * *

Sighing in frustration, Ed leaned back in his chair and looked up as he heard the door to the room open. A prison guard entered, leading an older, male prisoner with dark hair inside. The man stared at Ed with a slight smirk on his face, and Ed stared back with a look of cold fury. The man in front of him was a criminal known the Professor, who both Ed and Danny had many encounters with in the past, and was Ed's number one suspect on the list of potential candidates for kidnapping Danny. 

"You've got five minutes, Ed." the guard said, remaining inside the doorway. "That's all I could get you."

"Appreciate it, George." Ed nodded as the guard left the room, leaving the men alone.

"A bit surprised to see you here." the Professor remarked, sitting down on the other side of the table from Ed. The smirk still remained on his face and was irritating Ed more and more by the minute.

"Where is he?" Ed demanded, staring into the other man's eyes.

"Who?" a curious Professor asked, shrugging his shoulders.

"Don't play games with me." Ed warned, restraining himself from launching across the table and strangling the other man or beating what he wanted to know out of him. "Where is he?"

"I won't play games with you if you won't with me, Deline." the Professor replied, his smirk disappearing. "Who?"

"You honestly didn't have anything to do with it." a surprised Ed realized after studying the other man carefully for a few silent moments.

"Ah, I see." the chuckling Professor nodded, "Something's happened to Danny and, naturally, you think that I'm involved?"

"Is that really surprising?" Ed remarked, narrowing his eyes.

"No," the Professor admitted, leaning back in his chair. "But I'm honored that you would think that I could orchestrate something from in here. It's been a while since I've had that kind of pull."

"What about your buddy, Henderson?" Ed inquired, leaning forward as he remembered the Professor's accomplice in their last showdown: Bill Henderson, a disgraced senator with a personal vendetta against Ed. "I seem to remember you two being pretty tight when you pulled off the Ecuador gig."

"I haven't spoken to Henderson since then." the Professor spat, shaking his head. " Ever since I heard rumors that he was going to set me up to take the fall for that incident."

"Couldn't happen to a nicer guy." an indifferent Ed replied, getting up from his chair. "I'll let the guard know that you can be taken back to your cell." "However, in my opinion," the Professor continued, causing Ed to pause in his tracks. "I can't see him being able to pull something like kidnapping Danny Boy off from behind federal prison either." He looked into Deline's blue eyes. "We both know that he's not that smart."

"Yeah." Ed nodded, having to agree with that.

"Anyway, good luck, Ed." the Professor grinned, "And tell Danny that I meant what I said when I saw him last time: we WILL meet again."

"I will," Ed smiled back, heading for the door. "As I'm sure that he's looking forward to kicking your ass again."

* * *

"One more time..." Danny said to himself before throwing all of his weight against a portion of the wall, which he had figured to be a door. A possible exit hadn't been all he had discovered about the small room he was being kept in. His captors, whoever they were, had been nice enough to include a bathroom (really just a toilet in the space the size of a closet) which lit up whenever Danny walked in. Dim as it was, he had used this light to investigate the main room, which was bare except for a twin-sized, four-post bed. There was also a heater vent on the floor, but to Danny's disappointment, he probably couldn't even fit his foot in it if he did get the grate lifted up. 

Sighing in defeat as the door didn't give way, Danny wandered back over in the darkness and threw himself upon the bed. He stared up at the ceiling as many questions rolled around in his still aching head. Who had him? What did they want? Was Mary all right? Where was Mary? Did anybody else know that he was missing? Was someone there for Delinda?

"Giving up already, Danny?" a mysterious voice asked from somewhere, immediately getting Danny's attention. A chuckle followed the question. "That doesn't seem like you."

* * *

"Hey!" Sam greeted, noticing Delinda sitting by herself at Opus. If the blonde-haired daughter of Ed had heard Marquez, she gave no sign of it, only continued staring what she could see of the busy casino floor. "Hello?" 

"Huh?" a startled Delinda said, looking over. "Oh! Hey, Sam!"

"So I hear Mary's awake." Sam remarked, sitting down and trying to make conversation. "How is she?"

"Fine." Delinda replied, back to staring straight in front of her. "Worried about Danny."

"You are too." Sam realized, nodding her head.

"I can't help it." Delinda cried, leaning into her friend for a hug. Feeling wet tears soak through her shirt, Sam smiled gently and hugged her friend tightly. "What if they hurt him, Sam?"

"He'll hurt them a lot more than they'll hurt him." Sam promised, rubbing Delinda's back. "Danny's so strong, Dee, and he's smart too. If anyone can escape from these assholes, it's him. He'll be back with us in no time, you'll see."

"Wow." a surprised Delinda remarked, wiping her eyes as she sat up again. "Was that positive thinking I just heard from you, Sam Marquez?"

"No." Sam shook her head, "Never happened."

* * *

"Who the hell are you?" Danny demanded, sitting upright and looking around. Where was that voice coming from? "What do you want from me? Where's Mary?" 

"Relax." the voice instructed as the lights in the room went on, momentarily blinding Danny. "All will be revealed to you in time." He could hear the door to the room opening, but it was still too painful to look. "For now, enjoy the food and company."

"Company?" Danny repeated as the lights lowered to a much more comfortable level. He opened his eyes again to see a woman about his age standing in the doorway, holding a tray full of food. His eyes widened in shock as he recognized her. "Penny?"

* * *

"And you're sure that this is where he lives?" Ed asked the person on the other end of his cell-phone as he pulled his rental car into the driveway of a two-story house in the suburbs of Los Angeles. "All right. It just didn't look like anywhere HE would live. Thanks, Frank." 

Stashing his cell-phone in his back pocket, Ed got out of the car and headed for the front door. As he rang the doorbell, he looked around the neighborhood and noticed a young girl with black pigtails watching him from the sidewalk.

"Eddie!" Jack Keller greeted as he opened the door.

"Suburban life doesn't suit you, Jack." Ed replied, turning to face his former C.I.A. partner with a wide smile on his face. "Finally decided to settle down, did you?"

"Something like that." the dark-haired younger man shrugged, waving Ed inside. "Come on in! Let me grab you a beer or something." He closed the front door after Ed. "So what brings you out here to darken my doorstep?"

"I need your help." Ed replied as the two men walked to the nearby kitchen. "Danny's been kidnapped."

"Hmmm." Jack nodded, getting two cans of beer out of the fridge and handing one to Ed. "The Professor?"

"Already checked him out." Ed shook his head, "Unless he's running it from federal prison..."

"Not likely." Jack nodded, taking a swig of his beer.

"That's why I need you to come back to Vegas with me, Jack." Ed said, drinking his beer. "I have a feeling that I'm going to need your help, figuring out who did this." A smile crossed his face as he thought about his days with Jack in the C.I.A. "It'll be just like old times."

"I'm sorry, Ed." Jack sighed heavily, setting his beer down on the counter. "I can't."

"You can't?" a puzzled Ed asked before feeling his anger rise. "Why the hell not?" A possible explanation suddenly crossed his mind and he reached over and grabbed Keller by the shirt. "Don't tell me that you did this, you..."

"Yeah, I'm keeping Danny in my garage." Jack fired back sarcastically, throwing Ed's hands away from him. "I'm trying to turn my life around, Ed! Besides, why the hell would I kidnap the kid anyway? I, of all people, know better than to piss you off."

"I wonder about that." Ed growled, not backing down. "I also wonder why I thought that you could think of anybody but yourself!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack exclaimed.

"How many times have I saved your skin, Jack?" Ed shouted angrily, "Who was nice enough to let you off for that whole deal in kidnapping my wife and daughter last year?" He shook his head. "I should have just let the authorities take you!"

"How dare you come in my house and insult me!" Jack shouted back, motioning towards the door. "Get out of here! And don't let the door hit you on the way out!"

"You mother..." Ed started before the pair heard footsteps.

"Daddy?" the little girl Ed had seen outside asked, looking at Jack. "What's going on?"

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

* * *

"Daddy?" a stunned Ed repeated, turning from the little girl to Jack. "Who..." 

"Go outside, Catarina." Jack ordered, looking at the little girl. "Daddy and his friend are just having a little disagreement."

"Okay." the little girl smiled, "I love you, Daddy."

"Love you too." Jack smiled back, watching the little girl go back outside. Letting out a heavy sigh, the dark-haired man turned back towards Ed. "That's why I can't go with you."

"Who is she?" a curious Ed asked.

"A few years ago, I was living in Rio de Janeiro." Jack explained after taking another swig of his beer. "Long story short, I met a local girl after a night of drinking and bam! Nine months later, unbeknownst to my knowledge, Catarina was born." He let out another sigh and looked at the floor. "Her mother was killed in a car wreck a year or so ago, and the family didn't want her, so they looked me up."

"Damn." Ed muttered, shaking his head. "Poor little thing."

"Yeah," Jack nodded, "So that's why I can't go with you on this, Ed. I'm all she's got left and if something were to happen to me..."

"I understand." Ed reassured, smiling widely. "I'm sorry for saying what I did earlier." He laughed and shook his head. "I can't believe that I'm seeing this. Jack Keller actually taking responsibility and acting like an adult for once?"

"Watch it, old man! I could still take you." Jack laughed, clinking his beer can against Ed's. Once the laughter from both men died down, Keller looked sincerely at his former partner. "I will keep my ear open though and see if my sources have heard anything about the kid."

"Thanks, Jack." Ed replied, hugging his friend tightly.

* * *

"Penny?" a surprised Danny asked, "What..."

But McCoy had no time to finish his question. Before he knew what was happening, two large men came into the room from behind Penny and almost immediately forced him back down into a laying position. Feeling one of the men grab his right ankle, Danny tried to fight back, but it was to no avail as the two men were much larger and stronger than he was. As he heard a clicking sound, he looked down to see that the men had handcuffed his right ankle to the bedpost.

"Thanks, guys." Penny said as the two men got off of Danny and headed back outside. As the door slammed shut behind them, the brown-haired woman walked over to Danny's bedside and set a tray of food down across his lap. "Here you go! Eat up."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Danny demanded, not touching his food. "Are you the one holding me here? Where's Mary?"

"One question at a time!" Penny chuckled, sitting down next to him. Danny scooted away from his ex-girlfriend. "Mary's just fine. Ed and Mike are probably taking care of her as we speak." She smiled at him. "And no, I'm not the one holding you here."

"How'd you get out of prison anyway?" Danny asked, pulling his foot away from the bedpost in an effort to break the restraint.

"Crimes like mine don't get much jail time anymore," Penny shrugged, "especially with prisons being overcrowded as they are." She turned a sympathetic eye towards his foot. "That's not too painful, is it? I was trying to get them not to..."

"It's fine." Danny interrupted, not believing that she was concerned in the slightest.

"You should really eat something." Penny encouraged, nodding her head at the sandwich on the tray. "You'll need your strength, Danny."

"Not hungry." Danny replied firmly, pushing it away. "If you're not the person holding me, then who is, Penny, and what do they want from me?"

"It's not you they're after." Penny sighed, looking at the floor. "It's Ed."

* * *

"Hey!" Mike greeted as Ed walked back into the surveillance room a few hours later. "Mr. D.! Good to see you!" 

"Any progress on finding Danny?" Ed asked, walking over to his employee.

"We managed to trace the phone call to your office." a wheelchair-bound man named Mitch said from where he sat next to Mike.

"And?" an excited Ed wondered, looking between the two men.

"It came from right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean." Mike regretfully reported, causing Ed's excitement to vanish instantly. "How'd your leads go?"

"I had similar luck." Ed shook his head.

"Damn it!" Mike swore, banging his fist against a nearby desk.

"How's Mary?" Ed asked, desiring a change of subject.

"Good." Mike nodded, "I checked her into a room to get some rest. Delinda's up there now, keeping an eye on her."

"Good." Ed replied with a single nod.

"That's odd." Mitch commented, looking at his computer screen momentarily before turning to Ed. "Corporate just forwarded an e-mail specifically addressed to you."

"Probably just junk mail." Mike waved off, "Go ahead and trash it."

"Or it could be a clue about Danny." Ed pointed out in a rare sign of optimism. "Why don't you go ahead and open it, Mitch? No harm, no foul, right?"

"Right." Mitch nodded, doing as Ed commanded. "Looks like a link to a website."

"Bring up on the monitor." Ed ordered, walking over to the biggest screen in the surveillance room. As Mitch clicked on the link, a video player immediately launched, showing a night-vision shot of Danny sleeping. "That sick mother..."

"At least it looks like Danny's okay for now." a relieved Mike interrupted.

"A bit of much-needed good news." Mitch nodded in agreement.

"It'll be better news if we can bring him home." Ed sighed, turning towards his office. "See what you can do with that e-mail address, Mikey."

"You got it, Mr. D." Mike replied as he and Mitch immediately started typing furiously on their keyboards.

* * *

Not a bit surprising to him, Ed entered his office to find the phone on his desk ringing off of the hook. Deline had been prepared for this ever since he had told Mitch to open the e-mail. 

"Deline." he greeted gruffly, suspecting who was on the other side.

"Did you get my e-mail, Eddie?" the same mechanically disguised voice from before taunted, "I thought you'd enjoy that video clip."

"What the hell do you want?" Ed demanded.

"Revenge."

"Revenge?" Ed repeated, readjusting in his seat. "Look, you sick freak, if it's revenge against me you want, come after me! Leave Danny out of it."

"Relax, Ed." the voice chuckled, "Danny Boy is safe for now, but even I don't know how long that that will last."

"What's that supposed to mean?" a worried Ed asked before hearing a click followed by a dial tone. "Hello? HELLO?" He threw the phone down in disgust. "Son of a bitch!"

"Mr. D.!" an anxious Mike exclaimed, running into the room. "The website just went down!"

"God damn it." Ed muttered, closing his eyes. Although he wasn't a particularly religious man, the gray-haired man found himself silently praying for the safety of one Danny McCoy.

* * *

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!" the voice ridiculed, waking Danny up. Yawning, the brown-haired man looked around the room, but, like last time, couldn't find the source of the mysterious voice. Had the last time only been a few hours or a few days ago? McCoy wondered, hating the fact that he wasn't able to tell time from his darkened prison. "I'm curious, Danny Boy. Shouldn't Ed Deline have come to save you by now?" 

"If I were you," a defiant Danny replied, getting to his feet. "I wouldn't be so eager to have Ed show up and kill me. Whoever you are, your time is running out." A laugh escaped him and he shook his head. "You were a freaking idiot to think that you could get away with this in the first place."

"I see that you still have your spirit." the unfazed voice replied, "Let's see if that's still the case after you suffer through a few days without food, water or light."

"Bring it on." Danny challenged, clenching his hand into a fist.

* * *

"Were you even planning on coming home tonight?" Jillian asked, dragging Ed's attention away from the papers he was looking at. His blonde-haired wife flashed a small grin at him as she walked over behind him and rubbed his shoulders. "It's three in the morning, Eddie. Were you planning on staying here all night?" She lightly smacked him in the back of the head. "And you better have a good excuse for blowing off dinner with the Carmichaels." 

"I'm sorry, honey." Ed apologized, realizing that he was supposed to have had dinner that previous night with Jillian's friend from high school. He sighed and looked up at his wife. "Danny and Mary were attacked in the parking lot this..." He glanced at the clock. "Yesterday morning, and Danny was kidnapped."

"Oh my God." Jillian gasped, putting a hand over her mouth.

"Yeah." Ed nodded, rubbing his brow wearily. "I've been working non-stop on trying to find out who did this, and where they're keeping him."

"How's Delinda holding up?" Jillian asked, worried about her daughter.

"She's as well as can be expected." Ed replied, closing his eyes as his wife resumed rubbing his shoulders. "We all are. Anyway, she's up in a room with Mary, waiting for any news I can give them about Danny."

"And how is Mary?" Jillian wondered.

"A bit shaken up, but she'll be all right." Ed informed as Mike entered the room.

"Mr. D.," he reported, nodding his head towards the surveillance room. "The camera's back on, and Danny's actually up and moving about."

"Really?" Ed said, exchanging glances with Jillian, which told her to stay there until he returned. As he head into the other room, he could see the same night-vision shot of Danny in the small room. However, Mike was right and, unlike the previous time when he had been sleeping, McCoy was up walking around, pushing the walls in various places.

"What's he doing?" a puzzled Mike asked, watching his friend.

"He's checking the walls for weak spots." Ed realized after silently watching the monitor for a moment. His voice swelled with pride when he spoke next. "That's my boy."

* * *

"Damn it." Danny growled, kicking the wall in frustration. There had to be a way out of this hellhole of darkness and no sound except for the air coming through the vent! He had no way of knowing how long he had been trapped in there, but he knew that it had been long enough. As his stomach rumbled, McCoy wished that he had eaten that food that Penny had brought him before he had been dumb enough to challenge whoever was holding him, thereby revoking any chance of food and water for the next few days. 

Throwing himself onto the bed, Danny stared off into the blackness, trying to figure out who might have done this to him. It's not like he or Ed was short on enemies, thanks to their wor at the Montecito and Ed's past, but only a handful of them could have pulled something like this off. In addition, the two names on the top of Danny's list, the Professor and Bill Henderson, were supposed to be in jail.

"Not like being in jail's every stopped him before." Danny chuckled to himself, thinking about the Professor. He liked to imagine just how much more peaceful his life may have been if he hadn't gone after the older man after Ed and Nessa had originally conned him. But no, Danny thought, I had to go and con him myself a second time. Draping his arm over his eyes, Danny could picture the last time he had seen the older man. It had been in the temple in Ecuador and, thanks to Danny, a very battered and bloody Professor was escaping out of a back door before Danny and Mike could get to him in time.

_"No!" an angered Danny called out, ignoring his own injuries and running towards the door as it started to close._

_"Another day, Danny." the Professor promised with a firm look just as the door closed, separating the two men. Not willing to give up, McCoy banged on the object a few times with his healthy, left hand. Eventually, he quit with a sigh of defeat and turned away._

_"Another day." Danny had whispered in agreement._

Allowing the arm draped over his eyes to fall back to the side, Danny clenched his other fist and he stared up at the ceiling. Professor or not, McCoy swore to himself that he would make whomever had kidnapped him and attacked Mary in the parking lot pay for what they had done.

* * *

"I've been thinking, Mr. D." Mike commented quietly to Ed as they both continued to watch Danny on the monitor in the surveillance room. The bald, African American man turned physically towards his employer, not wanting others to overhear. "You think that the Professor could have done this? I mean you know that he and Danny have it out for each other." 

"I've already checked into it." Ed reassured, glancing at Mike. "And unless he's running this from behind bars, which I doubt, it's not him." A thought crossed the graying-haired man's mind and he clenched his own hand into a fist. "But you know what you could do? You could check into some of our other friends and see what their status is. Start with Henderson and that punk Leo."

"You got it, Mr. D." Mike nodded, immediately heading to his computer.

"We're going to find you, kid." Ed promised, turning his attention back to the monitor and Danny. "Just hang in there."

* * *

"Almost 24 hours now." Mary quietly commented to herself as she watched the sun begin to emerge from where it had seemingly been hiding behind the Las Vegas' skyline. Clutching a pillow to her chest, the redhead wondered what hells her best friend had suffered through since they had been attacked. 

"Do you want some tea?" Delinda interrupted quietly, walking in from the next room. Wiping her eyes, the blonde-haired woman only hoped that Mary hadn't heard her sobbing with worry over her boyfriend as that was the last thing the sick with worry Connell needed. Despite the fact that she herself wanted to do nothing but sob, Delinda knew that Mary would need a friend who was strong to help her get through this. "I made some tea if you want it."

"I'm so sorry, Delinda." Mary apologized, wiping her nose as she slowly turned away from the window. She shook her head. "This isn't fair to you."

"What's not fair?" Delinda asked, sitting down next to her.

"It's your boyfriend that was kidnapped." Mary explained with an embarrassed blush. "You should be the one that's falling to pieces right now, not me. It's not fair that I..."

"It's more than fair!" Delinda interrupted, hugging Mary tightly. "You've known Danny practically your whole life, Mary! He's like your brother, so it's perfectly natural for you to be worried about him like this. Daddy and Mike will get him back! You'll see."

"I'm glad that you're here, Dee." Mary sniffed, hugging her back. "And you're right. Danny's going to be all right." The pair broke their embrace, but Mary let her hands remain on Delinda's shoulders. "He's got everything to fight for right now."

"That he does." Delinda nodded in agreement.

To be continued...


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes: My sincerest apologies that this is so late. However, it's my busy season at work and because of that coupled with coming down with a horrible cough/cold, it really couldn't be helped. In addition, ffnet has been giving me problems when I've tried to upload it. I just hope that it was worth the wait.

* * *

Chapter Four

* * *

"Danny!" Danny could hear the hushed voice of Ed Deline from somewhere nearby. He was sure that few days had passed since what he started to refer to as "the Voice" had taken away his food and water privileges. Opening his eyes, the brown-haired man was stunned to see his mentor standing by his bedside in the darkness. "Come on, kid! It's time to go home!" 

"Ed!" an excited Danny exclaimed, sitting up in his bed. However, a frown reappeared upon his features as his mentor faded into the darkness like a ghost. No, Danny corrected himself, more like a hallucination.

Sighing heavily, McCoy fell back against the bed once more and stared up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the constant gnawing in his stomach or the dull pain in his head brought on by not having drank or eaten anything in the past couple of days. He was so desperate for nourishment that drinking the water out of his toilet had seemed like a good idea until he remembered how grungy the object in question had looked. His mouth was so dry that he could hardly speak and he hardly had the energy to do anything by lay on the cot, hoping that time was going by much faster than it seemed to be doing.

Hearing a sudden creak in the room, Danny turned his head to the doorway, which was slowly opening. However, McCoy couldn't see who was coming into the room as the lights suddenly blazed on at full power.

"AGH!" a pained Danny groaned, immediately squeezed his eyes shut and covering them with his hands. "Damn!"

* * *

POUND! POUND! POUND! 

"What the..." Ed slowly muttered to himself as he opened his eyes that same day. It was the first sleep the graying man had gotten in days, but only because Jillian and Delinda had begged him to come home and get some rest. The deal had also been cinched by Mary overhearing the argument and pointing out to Ed that, no matter how bad the situation was, Danny wouldn't want him killing himself to find him.

POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND!

"All right! All right!" Ed called out to the mysterious person apparently trying to break down his door. Grumbling something profane about door to door salesmen, Deline slowly got up out of bed, tied a robe around his pajama-clad form and headed downstairs. He yanked the front door open. "Mike, what..."

"I found them." a breathless Mike said, not waiting for Ed to finish. He thrust a newspaper into the older man's hands. "Both Henderson and Leo escaped from federal custody a few weeks ago and are still MIA."

"Henderson." Ed growled, grabbing a nearby vase and throwing it against the wall. There was now no longer any doubt in his mind as to who had kidnapped Danny. "That son of a bitch! How come we're only finding out about this now?"

"I don't know that for sure." Mike admitted, "I'm assuming that Henderson was somehow able to keep it quiet."

"Damn it!" an enraged Ed replied, punching the nearby wall. Trying to get his anger under control, he turned towards Mike, who nervously backed up. "Please tell me that you've had luck tracking down that website."

"That'd be a negative, Mr. D." Mike shook his head, "Whoever created it is good. I can't even figure out how to trace it, but I've got some calls in to some people I know from M.I.T. and they're working on it."

"Tell them to hurry, Mike." was Ed's only reply.

* * *

"Son of a..." Danny muttered, closing his eyes again after only opening them for a brief moment as he heard someone approaching him. All he had been able to tell, however, was that it was in fact a person approaching him and it appeared to be a man. Feeling his ankle being handcuffed once again to the bedpost, McCoy wished more than anything that he could see, but the few days without light had taken their toll. 

"Well, this won't do." a man's voice said in a Southern accent from somewhere nearby. Danny could feel his anger rise as he recognized the voice as that of Bill Henderson. "Turn down the lights so the poor boy can see, will you?" As the lights dimmed, Danny was slowly able to open one eye. An older man with short, curly, blond hair stood near by, watching his every movement. "There we go! That's much better! Isn't it, Danny Boy?"

"Don't call me that." Danny spat, managing to get to an elbow. He wanted nothing more than to tear the other man apart for kidnapping him and hurting Mary, but he also knew that it would be a futile effort right now due to his lack of energy and the fact that his ankle was shackled to the bedpost.

"Don't be so defensive." Henderson chuckled, extending a bottle of water towards Danny. "I'm just trying to hospitable."

Not bothering to reply, Danny just shook his head before tearing the cap off of the water bottle. The thought of it being poisoned or tampered with in someway didn't even cross McCoy's mind as he gulped it down, relishing how good it felt on his dry lips and throat.

"Now, don't drink it too fast there, kid." Henderson warned, watching his captive carefully before reaching to take the water bottle away from him. "You don't want to make yourself sick."

"Like I'm supposed to believe that you give a damn." Danny rolled his eyes, stopping midway through consuming the entire bottle. He knew that Henderson had a point, but he didn't care.

"Not about you personally." Henderson admitted, crossing his arms across his chest. "But if I'm going lure Ed here, I'm going to need live bait."

* * *

"God damn it." Ed muttered as the screen saver on his P.C. at the Montecito slowly changed into the still image of Danny sitting on his bed that had been up for the past few days. Considering that Henderson was no longer sending him live video, the gray-haired man couldn't help but imagine the worst happening to his protégé, the man who had become like a son to him. 

"Ed, I heard that..." an excited Mary said as she entered the office. However, the red-haired woman's voice immediately trailed away as she caught sight of the image of Danny. "Danny?"

"The monster who's got him is apparently considerate enough to show us that he's okay for now." Ed remarked, getting up and embracing the younger woman as she walked over, still staring at the picture. "We've gotten video of him too, but I didn't want to tell you or Delinda about it." He shrugged his shoulders. "Just in case there was something you shouldn't see."

"It's all right, Ed." Mary reassured, knowing that that was the older man's way of apologizing for not sharing that information. However, her eyes remained on the computer screen. "God! He looks so miserable!"

"He'll be all right." it was Ed's turn to reassure as he moved from hugging Mary to standing beside her, keeping one of his arms wrapped around her. "You know Danny better than anyone. You know that he'll come through this all right." He smiled slightly. "Remember when that temple imploded in Ecuador, and you thought Danny and I were goners?"

"Yeah." Mary closed her eyes, remembering that horrific moment. She smiled slightly at the memory of an injured Danny standing amongst the rubble, almost looking like nothing had happened. She opened her eyes once more. "You're right, Ed. This is going to be just like that."

"Yeah." Ed smiled, trying to shove his own worries aside. "I promise you, Mary, that I will get him back and he'll walk through the front door with that goofy-ass grin on his face and wonder what the hell we were all so worried about."

"Yeah." Mary nodded as Mike ran into the room.

"We've had a break-through." the breathless African American man announced, looking squarely at Ed. "Someone at the Anchorage airport spotted a man that looked like Henderson coming in from a private flight a couple of weeks ago."

"Henderson?" Mary repeated, looking from Ed to Mike. "That's that creepy senator, right?"

"Exactly." Mike nodded, keeping his eyes on the silent Ed.

"And you guys think that he might have Danny." Mary assumed, turning back to Ed.

"Call Jillian, Mikey." Ed replied, ignoring Mary's assumption. Instead, the older man's eyes fixated on the image of Danny in his cell. "Tell her to bring me my winter coat"

* * *

"Whoa!" Henderson exclaimed, just managing to miss Danny's arm, which had swung out at him. "Calm down, Danny Boy! If you don't behave, then I can't guarantee your personal safety." 

"You should be worried about your own personal safety." Danny replied, glaring at the older man. "After all, I'm not the one with a pissed off Ed Deline gunning for me."

"Shut up!" Henderson ordered, backhanding Danny across the face. Stunned, the Marine lost his elbow from under him, falling back against the bed once more. Slowly, he raised a hand to his nose and mouth to check for blood.

"See?" another man's irate voice growled as a dark-haired man Danny's age entered the room, apparently witness to what had just transpired. Danny recognized the man as Leo Broder, a former Montecito employee and Henderson's own protégé. "This is why I suggested that we kill him before Deline gets here." Pulling a gun out of his back pocket, Broder aimed it square at Danny's heart. "Say goodbye, G.I. Joe."

* * *

"Ed!" Sam shouted as she entered the office, carrying the older man's winter coat a few moments later. "Please remind Jillian that I'm not your personal delivery service!" 

"Daddy," Delinda asked, following Sam in. "Why did Mom bring..." Like Mary's had before her, the blonde-haired woman's voice trailed off as she caught sight of the picture of Danny. "Oh, my God! DANNY!"

"It's just a picture, sweetheart." Ed replied as his daughter rushed forward and held on to the screen, staring solely at the picture of her boyfriend. "Something his captors were nice enough to send along."

"Well, where did it come from?" Sam demanded as Mary went to Delinda's side. The raven-haired woman turned to Mike, the resident technical genius. "You were able to trace it, right?"

"We haven't been able to nail it down yet." Mike replied, looking at all of the three girls in turn. "But we believe that Danny's being held somewhere near Anchorage, Alaska."

"Okay." Sam nodded, "So, when do we launch Operation: Get Danny?"

"What do you mean?" Ed asked, looking at Sam.

"Don't play stupid, Daddy." Delinda answered for her friend, "We all know that you're planning some big mission to save Danny." She turned her head away from the picture of McCoy and looked at her father. "So, when do we leave?"

"Well, sweetheart," Ed replied, pretending to think. "You, Mary, and Sam aren't going anywhere."

"What?" a stunned Delinda exclaimed, exchanging glances with Mary, whose mouth had dropped open in shock.

"What kind of macho crap is that?" Sam demanded to know.

"Ladies!" Mike exclaimed, putting his hands up in the air to get their attention. "I'm sure that Mr. D. senses how you all feel about Danny and he knows that you would love nothing more than to help us..."

"Actually, there is no us." Ed interrupted, causing Mike's smile to fade. "I'm going solo on this one, Mikey." Seeing that nearly everyone around him was about to protest, the gray-haired man continued. "The bastard who's got Danny only kidnapped him to get at me, and I'll be damned if I'm going to put any of you in danger because of it."

"But Daddy," Delinda tried to reason, "whoever this monster is, he's bound to have back-up."

"Yeah." Sam agreed, nodding her head. "And it's not like we can't handle it, Ed. Remember what happened in Ecuador?" The raven-haired woman tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "You would have been dead meat if we hadn't shown up to help out."

"I don't remember that." Ed replied, wishing that his employees could just accept his decision. "What I remember is you guys not staying put like I asked you to, and putting yourselves needlessly in danger when I had a handle on the situation." Looking around at the angry faces of his employees, the older man sighed. "Don't get me wrong, all right? I do appreciate the fact that you guys want to help, but I'm just not going to let you this time." His gaze turned specifically to Delinda and Mary. "And I'm sure that if Danny knew the circumstances, he wouldn't want you guys putting yourselves in danger either. He would want the Montecito to run as normally as possible, all right?"

"All right." Sam, Mike and Delinda sighed in a defeated unison.

"Thanks, guys." Ed smiled, "I promise that I'll find someway to make it all up to you."

"Just bring Danny home, Mr. D." Mike replied for the group.

"And give whoever did this hell." Sam chimed in.

"And come home safe and sound yourself." a tearful Delinda added, hugging her father tightly. The thought of her boyfriend and, now, her father both in mortal peril terrified the blonde-haired woman.

"I'll be fine, sweetheart." Ed promised, hugging his daughter back. He wondered why Mary hadn't yet contributed anything to the conversation, but quickly dismissed it as nothing. His blue eyes focused on Mike. "Mikey, of course, you're going to be in charge while I'm gone. It should only take me a few days to find Danny and bring him home, but still."

"I'll do my best, Ed." Mike nodded as Ed headed for the door. "Godspeed."

With a final wave to his most trusted employees, Ed headed out the door and, presumably, on his way to the airport to catch a private flight to Anchorage to start his search. What he didn't see when his back was turned was Mary fingering the lone item in her pocket: the spare key to Danny's Camaro.

To be continued...


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: I can never thank you guys enough for all of your kind reviews. It really helps to inspire me when the muse is proving to be difficult, and I really hope that the writing is worth your wait. Special thanks to Leah (Swiperfox) for helping me out when I get stuck. Hope there's enough Danny-abuse in this for ya, buddy.

* * *

Chapter Five

* * *

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Henderson shouted, placing himself in between the gun-wielding Leo and the target, Danny. The curly, blonde-haired man looked at his protégé critically. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" 

"If he's going to be so much of a problem, I don't see why we just don't kill him and get it over with." Broder replied, lowering his aim and shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh yeah," a sarcastic Danny commented, narrowing his eyes at the other man. "Brave words considering I'm tied up, Broder. You know you wouldn't last two minutes if I wasn't."

"Never said that I played fair, McCoy." Leo smirked, aiming his gun at Danny once more.

"Leo!" Henderson snapped, getting the younger man to drop his gun once more. Turning to Danny, the former senator once again backhanded him across the face, causing the brown-haired man to fall back to his elbows. "No one gave you permission to talk!"

"See what I mean?" Leo smiled.

"As much of a pain in the ass as he is," Henderson said, turning from Danny to Leo. "We still need him alive in order to lure Ed here." A smirk crossed his face as the blonde-haired man turned and leaned down to check on the still-reeling Danny. "Besides, after this all over and some friends of mine give him an "attitude adjustment", he should prove to be a valuable ally to us."

"You..." Danny growled, taking the opportunity to grab the older man's throat and start choking him. Truth be told, he had only been pretending to be hurt the past few moments, waiting for a chance like this to arise.

"Leo..." the quickly-turning-purple Henderson managed to squeak out as Danny continued to choke him.

"Right." Leo nodded, hitting Danny in the temple with his pistol.

Stunned, the brown-haired Marine lieutenant let out a cry of out and fell back to his opposite side, letting the senator go immediately. He could feel blood start to trickle down the side of his face as his cut from a week or so ago reopened.

"Thank you." an appreciative Henderson said, finally managing to catch his breath.

"You're welcome." Leo smiled, hitting Danny in the stomach as he started to sit up again. Groaning in pain, McCoy fell back again. "What do you want to do about this one? Surely, you're not just going to let him get away with that."

"No, I think that I'll have you and the boys teach him a lesson." Henderson grinned before picking Danny's head up by his hair. The younger man winced in pain. "For future reference, Danny Boy, I meant what I said about not being able to guarantee your safety if you didn't behave. " Letting go of Danny (who fell back against the bed), the blonde-haired man turned and headed for the door, pausing just as he reached the threshold. Henderson turned back to look at Leo. "Nothing that won't take him too long to recover from."

"Got it." Leo grinned wickedly.

* * *

"What was that?" Ed asked, turning his head away from the window as a strange sound reached his ears. For the past hour or so, the gray-haired man had been doing nothing but watch the clouds and scenery pass underneath him, worry about Danny's safety and plan what he was going to do to both Henderson and Leo when he got a hold of them. When he heard the same noise again, Deline slowly got up from his seat, withdrew the pistol he had hanging from his belt and headed towards the source of the noise: the back of the plane. He nearly dropped his weapon in shock upon discovering the source. "Mary?!" 

"Hi Ed." the red-haired woman replied meekly from where she was climbing out of the cargo hold.

"Nearly gave me a heart attack." Ed shook his head, helping Mary to her feet. "Thank God that we're not too far from Vegas! I'll have the pilot circle back around and drop you..."

"I'm going with you." Mary said firmly.

"Mary, sweetheart, I..." Ed started, trying to let her down gently.

"I know what you said, Ed," Mary interrupted, "and I know that Danny wouldn't want me to put myself in danger, because he's always watched out for me like that. However, that's exactly why I need to do this. Danny's always saved me when I've needed it, and now it's my turn to pay him back." She looked upon the older man with a determined gleam in her eyes. "And if you don't take me along with you, Ed, I swear that I'll just get a commercial flight from Vegas and do this on my own."

"Guess that I can't argue with that." Ed replied.

* * *

"Ugh." Danny groaned, rolling over onto his side as he heard the door to his cell open once more. Leo and Henderson's men had just left after severely beating him, and McCoy was hoping that it wasn't them coming back for seconds. 

"Oh, my God." Penny's voice gasped as Danny heard footsteps fast approaching him. Lifting and turning his head, he could see his ex-girlfriend running towards him, setting the tray of food she had been carrying aside. He turned to face her as she reached him, and she cupped his face in her hands. "Danny."

"Don't." Danny replied, jerking his head (which felt heavier than usual and achy) away from her. He would have moved his entire body, but his ribs seemed to be crying out that this was a bad idea. "I'm still not buying this whole act of yours."

"I never wanted this, Danny." Penny begged, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket, moistening it with Danny's leftover water and wiping dried blood away from his mouth, nose and the side of his face. "You have to believe that."

"Why should I?" a skeptical Danny replied, jerking away from her again.

"I can't get into that right now." Penny sighed, finally accepting that she had cleaned all that he would let her clean. She got up from the bed, retrieved the tray of food and laid it across Danny's lap. "Eat. You're going to need your strength pretty soon here."

"What are..." Danny asked as Penny headed for the door.

"You'll see." Penny smiled before disappearing into the hallway.

* * *

"All right." Ed said, walking back into the main part of the plane. "I've just been to see the pilot and he says that we're about a couple of hours away from Anchorage."

"That's good." Mary nodded, turning her attention away from the window. "Have you heard from Mike yet?"

"Nah." Ed shook his head, reaching into the overhead compartment. "But he should be working on trying to somehow pinpoint Danny's location as we speak." He sighed heavily and paused what he was doing to glance down at the younger woman. "I'm afraid that it might be a wild goose chase when we get there, sweetheart. I'm not expecting to find and rescue Danny right away."

"But we will find him." Mary replied as Ed continued moving things around in the overhead compartment. "Won't we, Ed?"

"Absolutely." Ed replied, pulling a rifle down. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to find him, Mary." He checked the gun over to make sure that it was in working condition. "But it may get a little hairy and if it does, I want your number one priority to be getting yourself out of there, all right?" He looked at her and shook his head again. "Danny wouldn't want you to get yourself killed for his sake. So, if I tell you to run, you do it, understand?"

"I will, Ed." Mary promised with a smile.

"Good girl." Ed smiled back before taking the pistol hanging from his belt out and handing it to her. "I'm hoping that you won't have to use this, but I'd be crazy to let you come along unarmed." His blue eyes studied Mary carefully as she took the weapon from him. "You do feel comfortable using it, right?"

"Not exactly." an honest Mary replied, looking at the weapon in her hands. Worried that Ed might reconsider his decision, she quickly decided to clarify. "I mean I think that I'd be able to use it if I had to, but..."

"Good." Ed nodded, "But, like I said, I hope that it doesn't come to that point"

* * *

"Where'd you run off to?" Danny asked as Penny re-entered the room moments later, carrying a large garbage bag.

"That's not important." Penny shook her head, taking the now-empty tray away from Danny's lap. "It's good that you decided to eat." Setting the tray on the floor, she sat down near his feet. "Like I said, you're going to need your strength."

"For what?" a puzzled Danny replied as Penny took the restraint off of his foot. His brow furrowed in further confusion as he moved his sore foot around. "Penny?"

"We don't have much time." Penny said in a hushed voice, opening the garbage bag. "Eventually, Henderson and Leo are going to figure out that the camera watching this room is on loop and then, we're both screwed." Reaching into the bag, she pulled out a thick winter coat and Danny's shoes, which had been taken away from him. "Unfortunately, this is all I could get you."

"I still don't understand." a still confused Danny replied.

"Idiot." Penny laughed, "I'm trying to help you escape."

"You're what?" a surprised Danny exclaimed, "Penny..."

"There's a small town about 30 miles south of here." Penny replied, putting a finger on Danny's lips to quiet him. "You should be fine once you get there, but..."

"What about you?" Danny asked as he put his shoes on. "I can't just leave you here! When those assholes find out what you did, they're bound to kill you."

"Whatever happens to me now is my punishment for everything I've done to people." Penny shook her head as both she and Danny got to their feet. "The most important thing now is to get you out of here."

"I'm not just going to let you die." Danny replied.

"I'd only slow you down." Penny pointed out, before standing on her tiptoes and kissing Danny on the cheek, confusing him. "That's for good luck. I'll try and stall them as long as I can."

"And there's no way that I can convince you to come with me?" a solemn Danny asked once more.

"No." Penny shook her head, "I've made my bed, and I'm ready to lie in it."

"Thank you, Penny." Danny smiled before kissing her on the cheek.

"Danny..." a surprised Penny started, looking up at him.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who could use some good luck." Danny grinned back, winking at her.

* * *

"Have you seen Mary?" Delinda asked, walking into Danny and Mike's office where the latter was staring intently at the computer screen, trying to find anything that would let him get an exact location on Danny. 

"No." Mike shook his head, not looking up. "Why?"

"Because she's not at her apartment and she didn't show up for her shift." Delinda explained, "And because Danny's car is gone and she's the only person he's ever given a spare key to." As a possible explanation popped into her brain, the blonde-haired woman's eyes widened in horror. "You don't think she took off after Daddy, do you?"

"Like Ed would let her tag along." Mike scoffed, but admitting to himself that Delinda did have a point. Finally taking his eyes off of the computer screen, the bald man got up from his seat and headed into the nearby surveillance room. "Mitch?"

"Yo?" the wheelchair-bound man replied, turning his head as Mike and Delinda approached him from behind. "What's up, Mikey?"

"I need you to find when Mary was last seen in the casino." Mike replied, feeling slightly bad that he was beginning to like this feeling of being in charge under such dire circumstances.

"Sure thing." Mitch replied, punching in some keys on a nearby keyboard. "Give me a moment to run her through facial recognition."

"I appreciate this, Mike." Delinda thanked, turning to the man standing beside her. "I mean I'd like to think that I'm worried about nothing, but..."

"I know." Mike nodded as the computer screen suddenly read that Mary was nowhere to be found in the casino. "Damn, I'm starting to think that you might have been right, Delinda."

"I'll rewind to when she was last seen." Mitch said, punching a few more keys. "So, you guys think that she took off after Ed or something?"

"That's the theory." Delinda nodded as the monitor suddenly showed Mary walking to Danny's car and taking off in reverse. "Stop!" Noticing the time at the bottom, the woman's eyes widened. "That's only a few minutes after Daddy left his office."

"Go back a few minutes." Mike ordered Mitch, not taking his eyes off of the screen. As the video rewound and replayed, the trio could see Mary secretly following Ed out into the parking lot and waiting for him to take off before driving off in Danny's car herself. "Damn it! What the hell is she thinking?"

"She wants to save Danny." a sympathetic Delinda answered, now feeling equally worried for her father, boyfriend, and good friend. She also wished that Mary had told her what she was planning, so she would have been able to accompany her." Feeling her cell-phone vibrate in her pocket, the blonde-haired woman answered it without even bothering to check who it was. "Hello."

"Delinda?" Danny asked, barely able to hear his girlfriend over the wind around him. The Marine lieutenant had just made it outside the building he had been kept in and let out a huge sigh of frustration upon seeing nothing but snow around him.

"Danny?" an excited Delinda squealed, getting Mitch and Mike's attention.

"Yeah, it's me, baby." Danny laughed, ducking behind a nearby tree. He knew in his mind that he probably should have called Ed or Mike after Penny had given him his cell-phone back, but he needed to hear his girlfriend's voice.

"Danny!" Delinda exclaimed, tears of joy starting to fall. "I've been so worried about you! Are you okay?"

"Listen." Danny replied as Delinda could hear his phone start to cut out. "There isn't much time, Dee. You need to tell Ed...Henderson...South."

"Danny, I can't hear you." Delinda said, getting no reply. "Danny?"

* * *

"Delinda?" Danny repeated before taking the phone away from his ear and looking at it. "Damn it! Of all the times to die on me..." Knowing that his escape wouldn't remain unnoticed for long, the brown-haired man sighed and shook his head. "Better get going."

* * *

"How could this have happened?" an irate Henderson demanded, barging into Danny's now empty cell a few moments later. He looked squarely at Leo, who was restraining the only other occupant in the room: Penny. "Who is responsible for this?" 

"It appears someone still had some feelings for McCoy." Leo snickered, roughly shoving Penny forward. "She put the camera in here on loop, so we wouldn't notice anything as she helped him escape." His laughter increased a thought crossed his mind. "Probably thought it would help her nab G.I. Joe away from Ed's daughter."

"Go to hell, Broder!" Penny exclaimed, glancing back at the man behind her. Still angry, she turned back to face the blond, curly-haired, older man in front of her. "And you, just wait until Deline gets..."

"What a disappointment you turned out to be!" Henderson interrupted, slapping Penny roughly across the face, nearly sending her to the floor. He turned his attention to Leo. "Take a couple of your best men and go look for our missing friend."

"Why?" Leo replied, shrugging his shoulders casually. "The guy's a Vegas native, trained for the desert. Give him a couple of days and he'll either come back on his own or be a Popsicle."

"As amusing as that latter thought is," Henderson said as Penny slowly recovered. "I've told you time and time again that McCoy is worth more to us alive and in decent condition than he is dead or hypothermic."

"I'll get right on it." Leo nodded as Henderson turned to leave.

"See that you do." Henderson said, heading for the doorway. He paused for a moment and looked back at the pair that remained with a cruel smile on his face. "But first, take care of business here."

"Right." Leo nodded as the former senator headed out into the hallway.

"No..." Penny started to say as she noticed Leo take a pistol out of his pants. "Don't..."

"Too late." Leo replied before firing the gun.

To be continued...


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Notes: As always, thank you all for the reviews. :D

* * *

Chapter Six

* * *

"Damn, it's cold." Ed shivered as he and Mary exited the plane. The gray-haired man had directed the pilot to land the Montecito jet at a small airfield instead of the main airport, just in case Henderson had people watching the place. Rubbing his arms, he turned to look at Mary beside him who was silently staring at the snow-covered, tree-laden landscape around them. "Don't you think?" 

"He wasn't prepared for this." Mary sniffed; feeling the tears she had tried to keep contained the past few days start to surface again.

"What was that?" Ed asked, not sure what the redhead meant.

"Danny." Mary said as a sob escaped her. "He wasn't dressed for the cold weather."

"I'm sure he's fine, honey." Ed reassured, taking off his own jacket and wrapping it around her. "Don't worry, all right? Danny's trained to survive anything these creeps can throw at him."

"You're right." Mary admitted, wiping her eyes. "So, where do we even begin to look for him?"

Just as Ed was about to admit that he didn't know the answer to Mary's question, he felt his cell-phone vibrate wildly in his pocket. Taking it out of his pocket, a smile crossed the older man's rugged features as he noticed that it was Mike.

"Hold that thought." he said to Mary before talking into the phone. "Hey, Mikey!"

"Guess who was able to grab his cell-phone and call your daughter." an overjoyed Mike asked as Ed could hear him wildly typing into a nearby computer.

"Really?" an excited Ed exclaimed, gripping the phone tightly. A wave of pride washed over him as he realized that if Danny had gotten his cell-phone, then he had probably managed to figure out how to escape. "Where is he?"

"Hang on." Mike replied, typing into the computer again.

"What's going on?" a curious Mary asked, noticing that Ed had paused.

"Danny called Delinda from his cell-phone." Ed replied, looking at the red-haired woman, whose eyes lit up at the news. "Mike's trying to track down where the signal came from."

"Got it!" Mike exclaimed, getting Ed's attention once more. "He's about an hour or so north of your current location." Thinking back to what Delinda had told him about the phone call, he decided to bring up an important fact. "Mr. D., I should mention that when he was talking to Delinda, he did say the word South. Unfortunately, he was breaking up pretty bad by that point, so we don't really know..."

"South?" Ed repeated, trying to figure out what Danny had been trying to tell them. It didn't take the older man long to come up with a solution. "Kid must have been trying to tell us that he was heading this way."

"That's what I was thinking." Mike nodded in agreement.

"All right, Mikey." Ed instructed, knowing that he had to get to Danny as soon as he possibly could. Henderson would have noticed that McCoy had escaped by now, and Ed knew that there was no way he was going to let him go without a fight. "Just keep your eye on things down there, and Mary and I will handle the Danny situation."

"All right." Mike replied, "What about Henderson? You going to go after him?"

"Depends on Danny's condition." Ed said honestly, "His well-being is my first priority."

"As it is mine." Mike reassured, "Take care, Mr. D."

"I will, Mike," Ed promised, "And tell Jillian and Delinda that I love them and that the three of us will be home soon enough." A laugh escaped the older man. "It's way too damn cold up here."

"All right." Mike chuckled as he hung up the phone.

"All right." Ed said, turning to Mary and steeling himself up for this mission. "Mike said that Danny's cell-phone came from an hour or so north from here, but we have reason to believe that someone or something told Danny to head this way. However, it's getting later in the day and he'll probably freeze before he reaches us."

"So, wherever he is, we're going to have to get to him fast." Mary realized, nodding her head. A smile crossed the younger woman's face as she looked around the area. "Don't worry, Ed. I think I know a way that's faster than walking."

"What?" Ed wondered before following Mary's line of sight. "Snowmobiles for rent..." He chuckled again as he exchanged glances with Mary. "Well, what do you know?"

* * *

"I hate the snow." Danny muttered to himself as he continued digging a hole in the side of a hill. Although he didn't have a watch, the Marine lieutenant knew that it was getting later on the day and he would need some shelter long before dark. He thought about random things as he continued to dig: Delinda, how, during basic training, he never thought he'd need to use any of the winter weather survival tactics, Delinda, whether or not Penny was all right, Delinda, whether or not Henderson had sent men after him, Delinda, where in the hell Ed was, and Delinda. 

"Delinda." Danny said out loud, pausing in his tracks. Hearing his girlfriend's voice for the tiny bit he had gotten to hear it had almost made him forget just how cold it was or the hell he had been through this week. "I'll be home soon, baby."

"Damn it." he muttered again, hugging himself as a particularly fierce wind blew by. As it died down again, McCoy looked at the hole he had dug in front of him. It didn't look exactly like the snow cave he remembered seeing in basic training, but it would keep him from freezing until the next morning. Sighing, he climbed in and waited for nightfall to come.

* * *

"So, did you solve the case of the missing Mary?" Sam inquired, sitting down at the bar. Marquez had gotten the tip from Mike that Delinda might need someone to talk to and that Ed's blonde-haired daughter had retreated to Mystique. "Hello?" 

"Huh?" a startled Delinda said, snapping her head up from where she had been staring at the counter. "Oh, hey, Sam."

"Doesn't answer my question." the raven-haired woman giggled.

"Sorry." Delinda apologized, looking back at the counter.

"You know this is becoming a common thing with us." Sam pointed out, thinking about their conversation earlier in the hell that had been that week. She dropped all trace of laughter from her voice once Delinda didn't join in. "So, did you guys find Mary?"

"Yeah," Delinda nodded, "She's up in Alaska with Daddy, rescuing Danny."

"Oh, I bet Ed was happy to find her." Sam remarked, thinking about how firm the older man had been with them all about how he had been planning to go solo. Mentally, she was also cursing Mary out for not telling her about this plan, so that she could go along. "Any word on Danny?"

"I talked to him." Delinda revealed, nodding her head.

"You what?" a surprised Sam asked.

"He called my cell-phone." Delinda explained, looking up. Tears of happiness had begun slowly rolling down her cheeks. "He sounds just fine, Sam."

"Oh, Dee," Sam smiled, feeling a wave of relief wash over herself. In a rare gesture for the casino hostess, she got up and hugged her friend tightly. "See? I told you that he'd be all right. I bet that he and Ed are on their way to kick whomever did this' ass right now, and then they'll be home."

"I hope so." Delinda replied, closing her eyes and praying silently for the safety of both her boyfriend and her father.

* * *

Hearing the roar of a snowmobile from somewhere nearby, Danny raised his head so that he could look out of the hole he climbed into. It had only been a little while, but the snow cave had been working perfectly. The above-average looking man was already a bit warmer than he had been outside. The snowmobiles, or group of them as it sounded now, appeared to be getting closer, which gave Danny slight hope that he'd be out of this freezing hell soon. However, part of him also knew that it could just be Henderson's men looking for him, which made him wonder if he had hidden himself well enough not to be found by them. 

"Huh?" Danny whispered to himself as the snowmobiles stopped. His heart started to race as he continued to wonder if the riders were friend or foe.

"Danny!" he heard Ed's concerned voice suddenly shout. "Danny!"

"Ed." an ecstatic Danny said to himself.

"Danny!" Mary's voice followed suit. "DANNY!"

"Mary!" Danny exclaimed, climbing out of the hole. Once he got to his feet, he cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. "Ed! Where are you?"

"Danny!" Ed shouted back, causing Danny to sprint towards the sound of his mentor's voice.

"Danny!" Mary repeated in an equally loud tone.

"Guys, I'm right..." an out of breath Danny started to say as he reached where the voices were coming from. However, the brown-haired man stopped immediately as he saw that it wasn't Ed or Mary waiting for him. "Here."

"Gotcha." Leo smiled evilly as he pressed a button to silence the device he was holding as Ed's voice started to play again.

To be continued...


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to update, but unforunately, I've been busy at work. If only writing fics paid the bills.

* * *

Chapter 7

* * *

"Broder." Danny spat through gritted teeth, staring at his rival directly in the eye. As his heart started to race in anticipation of the fight he knew was coming, sudden movement behind the man in front of him caught Danny's eye. He cursed his luck as he noticed that Leo, predictably, wasn't alone; the two men who had helped him beat Danny earlier in the day were now standing behind Leo. Not taking his eyes off of them, McCoy reached down and picked up a tree branch that had fallen to the ground. 

"You know what, G.I. Joe?" Leo smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "If it were up to me, I'd just let you freeze to death out here." He paused momentarily as if mentally debating whether or not he should still go that route, and just leave Danny where he was. Eventually, the dark-haired man shrugged his broad shoulders. "However, Henderson seems to think that you're worth more to us alive than dead at the moment."

"Gee," a sarcastic Danny remarked, "You disagree with him on something?" He chuckled and shook his brown-haired head. "And here I thought that you had your lips permanently attached to his ass!"

"I could say the same thing about you and Deline." an insulted Leo grumbled, "See, Danny Boy? This is exactly why things haven't worked out so well for you lately: you don't seem to know when to keep your mouth shut." He glanced back at one of the muscular men behind him. "Kick his ass!"

"But Henderson said..." the man started hesitantly.

"There's no way that he's going to come peacefully." Leo waved off, knowing that the man was going to say that Henderson's specific instructions had been to bring Danny back with as little bodily harm as possible. However, Broder didn't see that McCoy coming along without at least attempting to put up a fight, and seeing Danny McCoy getting beaten up never grew tiring to him.

Seeing the man start to charge towards him, Danny got into a fighting stance and gripped the tree branch harder than ever. He didn't like the odds of three against one, especially out here where there was no one or nothing but the trees and snow to bare witness to it. However, the tall, brown-haired man knew without a doubt that he would rather die than be taken hostage again willingly. The man aimed a punch for Danny's head, but, thanks to his quick reflexes, McCoy managed to dodge in the nick of time and, as his opponent staggered forward confused, he swung the branch in his hands. It was a direct blow to the back of the head!

"Damn it." Leo muttered as the first man fell to the ground stunned. Still gritting his teeth, he turned to the second man. "Get him!"

Determined not to let the second muscular man have better luck, Danny was ready for him as he charged forth. This time he managed to connect the tree branch to the front of the head. As the man fell lifeless into the snow, McCoy dropped the tree branch and looked squarely at Broder, who got into a fight stance of his own.

"Been waiting for this." Danny grinned confidently before lunging forward and tackling Leo to the ground. As he held him down with one hand and punched with the other, Danny couldn't help but think about the pain his kidnapping had caused the people in his life; most importantly the pain it had caused both Delinda and Mary. And, although he felt relief wash through him as he continued to pound away, he almost made a promise to himself that no matter what, he would also make Henderson pay for orchestrating the whole incident.

WHAM! Danny didn't even see Leo grab the nearby rock, much less his hand slamming it into his head. Falling to the side in a daze, he silently berated himself for letting his thoughts distract him. He should have been concentrating on Leo, and Leo only. He felt the all-too-familiar sensation of blood trickling down the side of his face as the old wound had once again reopened. Wiping it away, McCoy noticed that, next to him, Leo was trying to get to his feet.

"No!" he exclaimed, grabbing the other man's legs and bringing him down again.

"A little help over here!" a desperate, bloody Leo shouted, causing Danny to glance over. To his horror, Leo hadn't been the only one to get back to his feet; the other two men had as well. Clenching his teeth, Danny managed to get in a few more blows to Leo's head before the two men rushed over and pulled him off.

"We got him, man." the man on Danny's right said, firming up his grip on Danny's arm as McCoy thrashed about, trying to escape. "I see what you said about him not coming peacefully. You going to be all right?"

"I'll be fine." Leo nodded, wiping blood from his nose and mouth. His dark eyes turned to Danny as he bent down to pick up the nearby tree branch. "You think you're so tough, don't you, McCoy?" He rammed the branch into Danny's abdomen, causing the other man to cry out momentarily. From past experience, he could tell that Leo's blow had broken a rib or two. "Screw Henderson's plan! I think that I'll just kill you right here and now." A confident smile crossed his features and a look of anger mixed with fear crossed Danny's as he produced a hunting knife from a sheath around his waist. "I can always tell him that a bear mauled you or something."

"Leo." the man on Danny's left shushed as the sound of snowmobiles were heard fast approaching the group. Danny felt relief wash over him as the sound reached his ears. Leo and his two cronies had obviously not been expecting the company, so whoever was approaching wasn't one of them.

"Damn it." Leo muttered, putting the knife away. He looked to the men on either side of Danny before nodding to the snowmobiles. "Quick! Make it look like a crash or something happened here." He turned to Danny as the men threw him on the ground. "Say or do anything and I'll make sure not to kill you until you watch helplessly as sweet little Mary and Delinda are killed right in front of your eyes!"

Feeling his blood boil again, Danny simply glared up at Broder and clenched his fists. He wanted to do more, but his ribs were crying out in pain upon coming into contact with the cold snow. His reply was even cut short by the approaching snowmobiles arriving in front of the group, just as Leo's men had tipped a couple of the snowmobiles over. There were two riders, Danny noted, one male and one definitely female. Placing himself in between his companion and the group, the male rider got off of his snowmobile and pointed at Danny.

"We're all okay." Leo lied, putting his hands up. "Our buddy here just had a little accident, but he's going to be just fine." He glanced warningly down at Danny. "Isn't that, right?"

"Right." a defeated Danny sighed, looking away.

WHAM! Hearing Leo cry out in pain, McCoy turned his attention back to Broder and the mysterious rider in front of him just in time to see his captor reel back as if he had been punched in the face. "What the hell?" Leo asked, putting a hand to his jaw. His dark eyes studied the rider carefully. "What in the hell did you hit me for?"

"Because." Ed grinned in response as he pulled off his helmet, causing a look of fear to appear on Leo's face and a look of relief to appear on Danny's. The graying man's smile widened as he threw his helmet aside. "That's what I do to douchebags like you."

"Deline." Leo muttered angrily before turning to the two men behind him. "Take him out!"

"Ed!" Danny shouted, getting to his knees as the two men charged forth towards his mentor. Seeing the tree branch laying near him on the ground, McCoy tossed it to his mentor.

"Thanks, kid." Ed nodded, catching it in the nick of time.

"Danny!" a concerned Mary shouted as she took off her helmet.

"Mary." Danny whispered, wondering what the hell she was doing here. Catching a glimpse of movement from nearby, he turned his head to see Leo heading directly for Mary. He threw himself at Broder, knocking him to the ground with a sideways tackle. "No! This is between you and me, Broder!"

"Get off of me, McCoy!" Leo growled, elbowing the other man in the temple and temporarily stunning him. The pair wrestled around on the ground for a while before Leo, after hitting Danny with a cheap shot to his lower abdomen, came up victorious. Pinning McCoy to the ground with one of his arms and his knees, he pulled the knife out once more with his free hand.

"Danny!" Mary screamed, wanting to help her friend but feeling as if the weather had frozen her to the spot. "NO!"

"It ends now." Leo smiled evilly, putting the knife to a struggling Danny's throat.

"Damn right it does!" Ed growled, swinging the tree branch with both hands, hitting Leo in the side of the head. Dazed, Broder fell sideways off of Danny and dropped the knife, giving McCoy a minor scratch on his neck in the process. Throwing the tree branch aside, Deline stomped over and picked the still stunned Leo off of the ground by the collar of his jacket. "Give Bill my regards."

"Nice one, old man," an appreciative Danny said as Leo fell lifeless to the ground beside him after becoming the victim of an Ed Deline punch. Although he was thankful to finally be rescued, he couldn't resist teasing his mentor. "But shouldn't you have been here a few days ago?"

"Shouldn't you have escaped sooner and saved me the trouble?" Ed fired back, helping Danny to his feet and pulling him into a tight hug. "It's good to see you, kid. You all right?"

"Broken ribs," Danny reported, wincing as Ed hugged him. However, after he said that, the older man loosened his grip. "And some bumps and bruises, but I'll be fine."

"You've suffered worse." Mary nodded as she joined the two men. Tears of joy were beginning to cascade down the red-haired woman's cheeks and, after Ed let him go, she hugged Danny.

"I'm just glad to see that you're okay." Danny smiled, hugging his best friend back. Ever since Henderson's men had taken him from the parking lot, he had wondered what had become of Mary, and who he'd have to kill if she had been harmed.

"Ed and Mike got to those guys before they could hurt me." Mary replied, rubbing Danny's back. She sniffled, trying to get the tears under control. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"What were you thinking bringing her up here?" Danny suddenly asked Ed.

"She would have killed me if I hadn't." Ed shrugged, tucking Leo's knife into his own belt. "All right, I want you two to head back to town while I..."

"Take on Henderson and company alone?" Danny finished, knowing what Ed was going to say. "Yeah, I don't think so, Ed. You can send Mary back, but I've got a score to settle."

"I'm not going anywhere." Mary echoed with a look that told Danny not to question her.

"All right." Ed smiled, thinking to himself that he was beginning to be a bad influence on his employees. "Let's do some hunting!"

* * *

Slamming down the phone, Bill Henderson ran a hand through his hair in a futile effort to calm himself down. He had just heard from one of his men that he had stationed in a nearby town that both Ed Deline and Mary Connell had been spotted earlier that day renting snowmobiles and heading in his direction. As he cursed his luck, the former senator hoped that Leo had caught up to and recaptured Danny McCoy before Ed could interfere. Although he was confident in Leo's abilities, Henderson knew that his protege was no match for Ed Deline or, worse, the team of Ed Deline and Danny McCoy. 

"Pack everything up." he growled to some of his men nearby. "Ed Deline won't win this easily."

* * *

"This is it!" Danny shouted so that Ed, who was sitting in front of him, could hear him over the roar of the snowmobile. "Henderson's base is on the other side of that hill coming up!"

"You sure?" Ed asked, glancing back momentarily.

"Positive." a slightly embarrassed Danny nodded, "I remember slipping on some ice and falling down the damn thing."

"Graceful, kid." Ed laughed, shaking his head. "Real graceful."

As Ed pulled the snowmobile to a slow stop, Danny turned and motioned to Mary, who had been riding behind them, that they were going to stop there. Pulling his helmet off, Deline got off of the snowmobile and looked at the hill in front of the group.

"What are you thinking, Ed?" Danny asked, walking up to his mentor's side.

"You and Mary, stay here." Ed replied, turning physically towards Danny before nodding his head towards the hill. "I'm going to have a look around."

"All right." Danny nodded, "But be careful going up that hill, old man. I don't want you pulling a me and breaking your hip or something."

"The only breaking that's going to happen around here is me breaking your neck when I get back down for that comment." Ed replied, gently punching Danny on the shoulder.

"I'll be sure to run." Danny laughed as Ed walked away. He turned to look at Mary, who was looking in a compartment of the snowmobile for something. Curious, he walked over to her. "You know, you really haven't said much this whole trip."

"Really haven't had time." Mary pointed out, not looking at him.

"That's true." Danny admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

"Here it is!" a relieved Mary said to herself, pulling a first aid kit out of the compartment. Turning towards Danny, she motioned to the seat of the snowmobile. "Sit."

"Mary," Danny started to reply, "I'm fine! I don't need..."

"SIT!" Mary demanded, causing Danny to comply. Kneeling down in the snow, she wet a handkerchief and started to clean Danny's face, which still had some dried blood on it. "God! You're a mess!"

"I've looked better." Danny grinned before wincing momentarily as a dull ache radiated from his ribs when he dared to take a breath. "Felt better too."

"I'm sure that Ed will have a doctor look at you sooner than later." Mary replied, dabbing some rubbing alcohol onto a cloth so she could clean the wound on Danny's temple. The redhead had to stifle a laugh as her friend, a former Marine, tried to pull away from the resulting sting. "Of course, maybe we should do that before you're reunited with Delinda. Something tells me that she's not going to let you go for awhile."

"How is she?" Danny asked.

"She's tried to be strong this entire time," Mary reported, taping some gauze to Danny's temple after not being able to find an appropriate sized bandage. "We've all been worried about you."

"I'm sorry about that." Danny apologized, knowing that Mary had probably been acting the same as she described Delinda: strong on the outside, but a mess inside.

"No need to apologize." Mary shook her head as Ed headed back towards the pair.

"Well, I'm guessing that our friend Billy knew we were coming." Ed said as both Danny and Mary got to their feet. "The place looks pretty deserted."

"So either the bastard got out of here while we were busy dealing with Douchebag and company," Danny nodded, "Or he's got some sort of ambush planned for us if we go down there. Neither of which is an ideal situation for us."

"Nothing about this week has been ideal, Captain Obvious." Mary pointed out, gently elbowing her best friend in the arm.

"So, what's the plan, Ed?" Danny asked after briefly smiling at Mary. "The sun is already starting to set, and it's already getting colder."

"The town's too far off." Ed nodded in agreement, "So, I guess we make for the only shelter around here." He sighed and the nod turned into a shake. "However, if things do get hairy down there, I want the two of you to get yourselves out of there, understood?"

"Okay." Mary reluctantly agreed, crossing her fingers behind her back.

"You know where I stand, Ed." Danny firmly replied.

"Right." Ed smiled, knowing full well that if things did go like he feared, his protИgИ would be right behind him. "Let's go!"

To be continued...


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

* * *

"Any news?" Sam asked as she walked into the office that Danny and Mike usually shared. The latter looked up from the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated in the last few days while Ed, the president of operations at the casino, had concentrated on finding and rescuing Danny and shook his head. "Damn." 

"How's Dee?" Mike asked, going back to his work as Sam sat down at Danny's desk.

"Jillian took her home a little while ago." Sam reported, checking her palm pilot for the latest updates on her "whales", or high rollers that were visiting the casino. "Said something about making her get some sleep, and that you and I should do the same."

"Maybe if I thought sleep was possible." Mike chuckled, twirling a pen in his hand. Sighing deeply, he crossed his arms behind his head and looked at the ceiling. "What I wouldn't give to be with Mr. D. and Mary right now?"

"You think that they found him yet?" a curious Sam asked, "I mean the sun just went down there, so the temperatures should drop below freezing. Danny wasn't prepared for that kind of weather."

"Wow!" Mike exclaimed, surprised at the note of concern in Sam's voice for one Danny McCoy, whom she frequently liked to argue with. "Did you just..."

"Then again, Mystique might look good with an ice sculpture." Sam grinned, putting a finger to her chin.

"Never mind." Mike sighed, hanging his head.

* * *

Ed's orders had been to approach Henderson's apparently now empty base as quickly and as quietly as possible...which had meant no snowmobiles. However, walking across the snow and ice-covered ground hadn't been proceeding as quickly as Deline would have liked. Pausing in his tracks, the graying man adjusted the pack of supplies on his shoulders and turned around to see how things were going for his younger companions. It was no surprise that Danny, who was carrying the other pack, was following close behind him, but every so often, the younger man would turn his head to see where Mary was as he didn't want to leave her behind.

"I'm sorry." Mary apologized as she and Danny finally reached Ed. The red-haired woman spoke through chattered teeth and hugged herself to keep warm.

"For what?" a puzzled Ed asked, exchanging glances with Danny.

"I know that I'm holding you two back..." Mary started to explain.

"You're not." Danny reassured, rubbing his best friend's shoulder.

"You're doing really good, sweetheart." Ed added, nodding in encouragement before a laugh escaped him. "God knows that Delinda would still be back by the snowmobiles, protesting the fact that we weren't using them." That prompted a laugh out of the group, which was quickly cut short by Danny wincing noticeably and putting a hand to his midsection. "You okay, kid?"

"Yeah, I'm good." Danny waved off, slightly embarrassed by the attention he was getting. "Just hurts to breathe every once in awhile. Nothing major."

"When we get back to civilization, first thing on my list is to get you to a doctor." Ed promised, "But for now, our first priority is to make to that building before we freeze to death out here or some animal eats us."

* * *

"Delinda?" Jillian asked quietly, knocking on the slightly open door the guest bedroom. Upon seeing that her daughter wasn't asleep, the older, blonde woman walked fully into the room. "Honey, you need to get some rest."

"I can't sleep, Mom." Delinda shook her head, looking down at the picture frame she held in her lap. Inside was a picture of her and Danny Mike had taken at a recent barbecue of his. "I'm just so worried about Danny and now, Mary and Daddy."

"They're going to be fine, sweetie." Jillian promised, wrapping her arms around her daughter. "Your father and Danny are both trained to survive situations like this, and we both know that they'll die before they let anything happen to Mary." She kissed the younger woman on the side of the head. "You'll see. You'll probably be at work tomorrow or the next day and they'll come striding into the casino, wondering what the hell we were all so worried about."

"Thanks, Mom." Delinda sniffed, hugging her mother back. "I think that I'll try to get that sleep now."

"Okay, honey." Jillian smiled, helping Delinda as she crawled into the bed. When her daughter was settled, Jillian gave her one last kiss on the forehead. "Sweet dreams."

"Night, Mom." Delinda replied as Jillian walked out. As the door shut behind her mother, the blonde-haired woman looked at the photograph that laid on the bedside table. "You better come back safely, Danny McCoy."

"You better come back safely, Ed Deline." Jillian said at nearly the same time just outside the door.

* * *

"All right." Ed said quietly as he, Danny and Mary leaned up against the side of the building to prevent being seen by possible snipers and/or security cameras. "I want you two to follow my lead, but be ready to run at a moment's notice."

As both Mary and Danny silently nodded, Ed quietly opened the door next to him and peeked both his head and the barrel of his rifle inside. Upon not seeing anybody, the graying man motioned for the other two to follow him.

"Doesn't look like anyone's home." Danny commented a few moments later as he, Mary and Ed continued quietly down the hallway; the two men having strategically placed themselves in front and in back of their female companion.

"I wouldn't relax just yet, Danny Boy." Ed replied, glancing back at his protege. "Not until we've checked each and every inch of this hellhole." He suddenly paused in his tracks and gripped his rifle tightly. "Hold up."

"What's up, Ed?" Mary asked, exchanging confused glances with Danny.

"I hear something." Ed said, looking around for the source. His eyes narrowed in confusion the moment his mind recognized the sound for what it was. "We're not alone. I hear someone moaning."

"Moaning?" Danny repeated before his own eyes widened in terror. "Oh, no."

"Danny?" Mary asked as the man behind her broke rank and charged forward down the hall. Not saying a word, Ed just tried and failed to grab McCoy as he ran past him. "What..."

"I don't know." Ed replied, turning to Mary. "Come on!"

* * *

"Oh, God." Penny muttered to herself, blinking her eyes as her vision started to go blurry. She mentally cursed Leo for shooting her in the stomach, ensuring a long, slow death in this cold building in the middle of nowhere. She had tried to beg the men that had passed while following Henderson's orders to evacuate to at least put her out of her misery, but no one had listened. Hearing footsteps fast approaching her, Penny didn't even bother calling out as she knew it wouldn't be too long now.

"Penny!" Danny exclaimed, immediately going to his ex-girlfriend's side. He held her gently in his arms, picking her torso up from out of the pool of blood she had been laying in. "Penny?"

"Danny…" Penny smiled just before she closed her eyes for the final time. "Thank God."

"Penny." Danny whispered as he felt the woman go limp in his arms.

"Oh, my God." a horrified Mary gasped as she appeared in the doorway along with Ed. "That's…"

"Penny Posin." Danny nodded, "She's the one that helped me escape."

"I'm sorry, kid." Ed sighed, walking over and helping Danny lay Penny down on the bed.

"We need to get them, Ed." Danny sighed, looking down at the still body. "For her."

"We will, Danny Boy." Ed promised, clapping a hand on the younger man's shoulder. Deline's eyes were blazing with anger as he thought about Henderson and Leo escaping justice once again. "We will."

* * *

"Coffee?"

Looking up, Danny could see Mary standing over him, holding a pitcher and two empty mugs she had obviously found from somewhere. The former Marine was sitting on the ground in one of the sleeping bags Ed had brought, leaning slightly up against the wall as that seemed to be the only position that didn't cause him pain.

"Thanks." he said appreciatively as Mary sat down next to him. "Ed?"

"Patrolling the building again." Mary smiled, pouring her and Danny each a cup of coffee. "You would think that he doesn't really believe that the place is deserted, even though he's been over every square inch four or five times." She looked into her best friend's eyes. "You okay?"

"I'll survive." Danny nodded before taking a drink.

"Were you thinking about Penny?" Mary asked, climbing into the sleeping bag next to Danny's.

"I should have made her come with me." Danny sighed, looking at the ceiling.

"And I should have listened to you." Mary sighed herself.

"Hmm?" Danny replied, not knowing what she meant.

"Back in the parking lot." Mary clarified, "Maybe if I had gone inside when you had asked, I could have gotten help earlier and you wouldn't have…"

"You couldn't have known, Mary." Danny shook his head.

"It could have saved you from…" Mary protested before Danny put his hand up to stop her.

"You don't know that it would have." Danny pointed out, "Don't tell me that you've been feeling guilty about that all this time?"

"A little." Mary admitted with a nod.

"Mary," Danny said, putting his arms around her shoulders, "Henderson seemed pretty desperate to get his hands on me. Even if you had gotten help, he would have tried again and who's to say it wouldn't have ended up worse? The only way you'd be guilty of anything is if you were the one who had planned to kidnap me."

"You'd like that way too much." Mary smiled, feeling better. "And something tells me that Delinda wouldn't approve."

"Yeah." Danny chuckled, rubbing his friend's shoulder. "Yeah, you're probably right."

* * *

"You incompetent…" Bill Henderson growled, his face flushed with anger. Leo suddenly felt lucky that the table was bolted to the airplane floor or he had a gut feeling that it would have come flying at him at that particular moment. "I send you and two of our best to retrieve McCoy, and you fail?!"

"Hey!" Leo protested, glaring at the man across the table. "I had McCoy right where I wanted him until Deline showed up."

"You should have had him back here long before then!" Henderson exclaimed, causing Leo to wince.

"Sorry, boss." Broder sighed and looked away, "Now what do we do?"

"We lay low until I can think of a plan B." Henderson said, running a hand through his hair. "We're not giving up on the main objective, Leo, and that is to destroy Ed Deline."

To be continued...


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: As you may or may not have heard, our beloved Vegas has been cancelled by those idiots at NBC...however, we, the fans, aren't taking this lying down...check out "lasvegas-theseries" for more information on Operation: Baby Booty.

* * *

Chapter 9

* * *

"Someone's out." Ed teased as he sat down in the opposite seat from Danny and the sleeping form of Mary, who was leaning against McCoy. The older man had just been up conversing with the pilot in charge of taking them back home.

"She didn't sleep well last night." Danny smiled, turning his attention from the tree-covered lands passing beneath them to the redhead at his side. He put an arm around her protectively. "I don't think either of us did." He looked up into Ed's eyes. "How long till we're back in Vegas?"

"Another couple of hours." Ed sighed, rubbing the weariness from his own eyes. The strain of the last week or so, and the lack of sleep in the past few days beginning to catch up with him.

"You should get some sleep too, Ed." Danny advised before a small, teasing grin appeared on his face. "I promise that I'm not going to go anywhere."

"What are you talking about?" Ed replied, waving off Danny's concern. "I used to pull all-nighters like this all of the time when I was with The Company."

"But you're not as young as you once were." Danny pointed out.

"And it's way past your bedtime, junior." a grinning Ed fired back, "What's your point?"

* * *

"Mike." a half-asleep Sam groaned from where she laid on the couch in Ed's office. The raven-haired woman had fallen asleep after helping Mike get caught up on the mountain of paperwork left by Danny and Ed's joint absence; her rest disturbed as the desk phone rang loud and shrill. "Mike, get the damn phone."

"Right." Mike muttered, asleep himself with his head down on the desk. After groping around blindly for a few minutes, he grabbed the phone and yawned into the receiver. Sam merely groaned once more and turned physically away from the noise. "Ed Deline's office?"

"Wow." Danny laughed, causing Mike to snap to immediate attention as he recognized his friend's voice. "You're so lucky that it was me calling and not Ed."

"Danny!" Mike exclaimed happily, prompting Sam to sit up.

"It's good to hear your voice, Mikey." Danny smiled, waving off Ed's questioning look about why Mike was lucky.

"Good to hear my…" a relieved Mike repeated, "Hell, D-Man!"

"Where is he?" Sam asked, getting up from the couch and walking over to Mike's side.

"You know that I've been away from home too long when I'm happy to hear Sam's voice." Danny chuckled, overhearing Marquez's voice. "Ed, Mary, and I are all on the plane home as we speak. We're all fine…a little tired and I'm a bit banged up, but we're good otherwise."

"All right." Sam exclaimed, hearing Danny's reply.

"And Henderson…" Mike grinned widely, anticipating good news.

"Got away unfortunately." Danny sighed, causing Mike and Sam both to stiffen in frustration. Their overjoyed looks quickly disappeared from their faces as the pair realized that the "battle" wasn't over.

"Mikey," Ed instructed, his voice loud enough for those on the other end of the line to hear. "I want you to start checking anything and everything you can think of to help us find that rat bastard."

"Not even a question, Mr. D." Mike nodded, clenching one of his hands into a fist.

* * *

Hearing the shower running as she passed by the bathroom that next morning, Delinda was just about to knock and wish her mother a good morning when the sounds of voices coming from the downstairs kitchen caught her attention. As she hurried down the steps to investigate, her confusion was magnified tenfold as she heard her mother's distinctive voice as one of the many.

"Mom? I thought you were…" Delinda asked, walking into the kitchen to find her mother preparing food for Mary and Ed, who were sitting at the breakfast table. "Oh, my God! DADDY!"

"Hey there, sweetheart." Ed greeted, a soft groan escaping him as his adult daughter launched herself into his lap and hugged him tightly.

"When did you…" Delinda asked, not letting go for a moment.

"About an hour or so ago." Jillian replied, watching the scene in front of her with a smile.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Delinda exclaimed, "Mary!"

"Uh…" a confused Mary said as Delinda pulled the same trick on her as she had with Ed. "Hi, Dee."

"God, I was so worried about you." Delinda said, not letting go of Mary for an instant. "Where's Danny? You did bring him back, right? He's not still…?"

"He's the one upstairs." Mary nodded, prompting Delinda to let go of her and race towards the stairs.

"He wanted to come straight to you, sweetheart," Jillian started to explain as her daughter darted past her. "But your father…"

"What?" Delinda could hear Ed grumble as she ran up the stairs. "Guy hasn't taken a shower in about a week, and I didn't want him stinking up my house!"

It seemed to Delinda that the walk up the stairs took hours longer than the one down them a few moments ago. In fact, it wasn't until she had caught her anxious breath once more and pushed open the door to see Danny standing there, having just finished wrapping a towel around his waist, that time seemed to resume its normal speed. As he heard the door open, McCoy turned around and smiled widely upon seeing the blonde-haired woman standing there. God! Had he missed her!

"Hey, baby." Danny said gently as tears came to Delinda's eyes.

"Oh, Danny." Delinda sobbed happily, throwing her arms around him.

"Hey, hey." Danny soothed, rubbing the woman's back tenderly.

"I never thought I'd see you again." Delinda managed to say through her tears as she looked up into his eyes. "I thought that you…"

"You really think I'd let some scumbag like that keep me from seeing you again?" Danny asked, cupping her face with his hands. "It would take a lot…more than any person on this earth has…to do that."

Feeling Danny's lips make contact with her own, Delinda simply sniffed before reaching up and putting her hands on McCoy's shoulders. As she kissed him back, she took a moment to silently thank God and whatever else was responsible for bringing him back to her safe and sound.

* * *

"Oh, there he is!" Mike exclaimed joyfully, getting everyone in the Montecito's surveillance room's attention as Danny walked in that evening. With wide smile on his face, Cannon walked up to and threw his arms around his best friend. "Good to see you, man!"

"You too, Mike." Danny smiled, hugging his buddy back.

"You know," Mitch teased as he came rolling over to the pair. "Henderson should just be lucky that Ed decided I should stay here, because…"

"What in the hell…?" Danny interrupted, exchanging confused glances with Mike. "What is he talking about?"

"Remind me again, Mitchell." Mike asked, folding his arms across his chest. "Just how many times have WE saved your ass?"

"None that I can recall." Mitch shook his head, the grin never leaving his face. "Now, if you were to ask how many times I've bailed you two out…"

"Well, this is just what I need." Ed interrupted with a weary sigh just as Mike and Danny looked about ready to reply. "The Three Stooges reunited!" He pointed a firm finger at Mike. "Mike, get back to work on Henderson and Broder. I wanted them found yesterday!" As Mike nodded and walked away, Deline turned his attention to Mitch. "You, keep an eye on the casino…and don't roll your eyes at me! I've got no problem hitting a man in a wheelchair if he deserves it!" Finally, he turned to Danny. "As for you…I thought I told you to stay at my place for a few days."

"I'd rather be here." Danny shook his head, "I just can't sit at home and do nothing while those creeps are still out there."

"I knew you weren't going to stay home." Ed nodded, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket. "You're too much like me, kid."

"Is that a compliment?" Danny grinned.

"Depends on who you ask." Ed laughed, handing Danny the paper. "Here. I need you to go do an errand for me."

"What's this?" Danny asked, taking the paper from Ed and looking at it.

"Jack Keller's current address." Ed answered, causing Danny to open his mouth. "I know! I know! Believe me I know that he's an ass, but we may need him."

"Well, why can't you do it?" Danny wondered, folding his arms across his chest.

"I'm going to be otherwise occupied." Ed sighed, not willing to tell Danny everything about his upcoming activities.

"Doing what?" Danny demanded, picking up on the fact that Ed wasn't telling him everything he knew.

"Excuse me. Ed?" Mitch interrupted, "Your liaison with Nevada State just called up from the front desk. Reuben McDougal was brought here and taken to holding for questioning. Why did you bring…"

"Him here?" a visibly angry Danny finished, recognizing the name instantly.

"Thanks, Mitch." Ed said sarcastically before putting a hand on Danny's shoulder and leading him out of the surveillance room and into the hallway, so they could talk in private. "Look…"

"That whole thing about going to Keller's was to distract me, wasn't it?" Danny realized, pushing Ed's hand off of his shoulder. "After everything he's put me through, you didn't think that I had the right to know that he was here?" He paused momentarily as his anger shifted towards confusion. "Why is he here anyway?"

"We need someone who knows the insides of Henderson's operations." Ed replied, knowing his answer was not going to pacify Danny any.

"But him?" Danny said, "We can't trust him, Ed!"

"I know we can't." Ed reassured, "I haven't completely lost it." He sighed deeply and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "But you know as well as I do that he's better than nothing."

"I'm going down there with you." Danny replied firmly.

* * *

"Do you need my help AGAIN, Ed?" the Professor scoffed as the door to the holding room he had been waiting in for the past half an hour swung open. To Deline's surprise and scorn, the older man was leaning back in his chair, casually resting his feet on the nearby table, and a confident look was plastered on his face. "You could at least post my bail!"

"Fat chance of that happening." Danny muttered, walking in behind Ed. His eyes fixed on the man sitting at the table like a cat that had spotted a mouse invading its territory.

"Ah, Danny!" the Professor said casually as if greeting an old friend. "It has been far too long!" He sat upright in his chair. "You're looking well, considering."

Danny remained silent, but Ed could tell just by looking at him that his protégé wanted nothing more than to rip the other man apart with his bare hands.

"He's only here because he left me no other choice." Ed warned the Professor and also reminding Danny, who walked over and sat down at the opposite end of the table, of that fact as well. "Do anything to antagonize him and I'll let him do what he wants."

"But not before you get what you want." the Professor chuckled, seeing through Ed's threats. "I know your plan, Deline, but the question is: what do I get out of it?"

"The fact that you're still alive isn't consolation enough?" Danny interjected before Ed could answer. The tall, above-average looking man gripped one of his hands into a tight fist and ignored the cautionary look Ed was giving him. "I should have killed you back in Ecuador."

"Hmm." the Professor commented, "Yes, I seem to remember you trying but failing like always."

"I won't again!" Danny growled, finally giving into his anger. In one quick motion, he rose from his seat and rushed towards the older man with a look of vengeance in his brown eyes.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Ed exclaimed, trying to place himself in between the two and restrain Danny, who had already managed to land a few blows on the older man. As McCoy eventually quit struggling against his mentor's strong grip, Deline lowered his voice so that only he could hear him. "Don't let him bait you like that."

"Sorry." Danny muttered as Ed let him go.

"Learn to keep your dog on his leash, Deline." the Professor said after checking to make sure he wasn't bleeding.

"Keep talking like that," Ed replied, staring directly into the Professor's eyes. "And Danny Boy and I will gladly take you out on a one-way trip to the desert. Understood?"

"Yes," the Professor chuckled nonchalantly, "I'd love to see you, CIA connections and all, explain to the authorities why I suddenly vanished. Even you couldn't escape the heat you'd take for that one, Ed." Shaking his head, he shifted in his seat. "So, I'm assuming that you had me brought here because, even though you clearly managed to rescue Danny, our friend Henderson managed to give you the slip?"

"That's the cliff-notes version, yeah." Ed confirmed, sitting down across from him. "Tell you what, McDougal, I don't usually make deals with scumbags like you, but since we're desperate…you help us catch that rat bastard or else, I will personally make sure that you'll be seeing even more of the inside of that jail cell."

"A fair deal." the Professor nodded, "However, I'm going to need assistance tracking him down as my resources aren't what they once were. So, I can only agree to your terms on one condition."

"That being?" a curious Danny asked before Ed could get the words out.

"You." the Professor said, turning physically towards Danny.

To be continued...


	10. Chapter 10

* * *

Author's Notes: Here it is! The pain in the butt chapter that took a year to write....I apologize for the long wait. Rest assured, it will not happen again or I will kill a certain Danny-muse.

* * *

Chapter Ten

* * *

"Have you seen Danny?" Mary demanded, approaching Mike from behind. The bald-headed, African American man's eyes were glued to the computer screen in front of him, even after Connell spoke, so she gently turned him around with a sigh of frustration. Frustration that quickly changed to worry when she saw the bags under her friend's eyes. "Mike, you look horrible! When was the last time you took a break?"

"Right before you guys came home." Mike yawned loudly, shaking his head. Now that Mary had mentioned it, he did feel a little tired from the long hours he had put in ever since Danny had been kidnapped. However, upon remembering how important his assignment was, he rubbed his eyes. "And yeah, Danny was up here a little while ago, but him and Ed went down to holding to interrogate someone."

"That someone being the Professor." Mitch interrupted, wheeling himself over to the pair.

"What?" Mike and Mary exclaimed at the same time.

"Ed somehow had someone bring him over from Nevada State." Mitch continued, "Don't ask me how he did it, as we all know that Ed could get the Pope here in an instant if he wanted him. Anyway, Danny overheard me tell Ed that he was here, so of course…" He paused momentarily to grin at Mike and Mary. "So, we going to take bets on how long it takes Danny to kill him?"

* * *

"Me?" Danny repeated, breaking the silence that had fallen over the holding room. McCoy figured that he had better speak as the Professor looked to be waiting for an answer and Ed? Well, Ed looked like it was taking him everything he had not to just kill the other man on the spot. "You want me to help you?"

"Yes." the Professor replied, barely containing a laugh that escaped him. "That is what I said, Danny. Although, I'm now considering whether or not it was a good idea as you seem to be slower than usual."

"Eh, that's the kid for you, Teach." Jack Keller shrugged as he walked into the room. Stunned to see the former CIA agent, Danny quickly turned to Ed, who remained the same. If Deline was surprised to see his former partner, he sure wasn't showing it. Whistling a tune to himself, the still grinning Keller clapped Danny roughly on the shoulder and looked the Professor up and down before turning to Ed. "You're losing your touch, old man. He should look a lot worse than this by now."

"Shut up and sit down." Ed growled, thinking that he may have to tap into the migraine medicine he stored in his desk later. "So, Jackie, our friend here has just made us a generous offer that I think you should hear."

"You really think that you can get what you want the old fashioned way. Don't you, Deline?" the Professor replied, folding his arms across his chest. "You and Keller working your old CIA magic until I talk? How would you explain that one to the authorities?"

"See, therein lies the problem." Ed said, resting his arms on the table. "You seem to think that somewhere in this world, there's someone that actually gives a damn about what happens to you. Had you just been reasonable and tell us what we want to know, we could have avoided this little situation altogether."

"So, what's this offer you were talking about?" Keller wondered, sitting down in a chair. It wasn't long before he folded his hands behind his head and casually leaned back.

"I'll tell you later." Ed promised, rising from his seat. "Right now, keep an eye on him while Danny and I have a little chat out in the hallway."

"You sure that we can…" Danny started to ask, turning his gaze from Keller to Ed.

"Do you really think I'd leave them alone if we couldn't?" Ed grinned, motioning for Danny to follow him out into the hallway. When both men cleared the door, Ed shut it tightly behind them. "Well, now that that's all taken care of…"

"What are you and Keller going to do?" Danny interrupted, "And why didn't you tell me that he was coming?" He shook his head in disgust. "First, the Professor and now, Keller? Why…"

"Because you've had enough on your plate this past week or so without getting all worked up about those two." Ed explained, seeing where this was headed. Smiling, he clapped a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Why don't you go back to my place, huh? I'm sure that Delinda is wondering where the hell you are."

"Excellent suggestion, Ed." Mary agreed as she and Mike appeared from seemingly out of nowhere. She focused her gaze on Danny. "What the hell are you doing here? You know that you should be with Delinda."

"I was trying to avoid bringing her down here," Mike explained, "But…"

That's another thing!" Mary interrupted, turning her attention to Ed. "I know that we need to catch Henderson, Ed, but Mike isn't a robot. He needs to go home and get some rest."

"I'm fine." Mike shook his head.

"No, no, she's right." Ed replied, finally noticing the bags under Mike's eyes. He looked McCoy and Cannon squarely in the eyes. "Go home and get some rest, both of you. Mary's right, Mikey. You're not a machine, and you got bags the size of Nevada under your eyes." He turned back to Danny. "As for you? Well, I'm just surprised that Jillian hasn't driven over here and physically dragged you back home with her yet."

"But Ed…" Danny started to say.

"Go on." Ed waved off, "I'll tell you if Jack and I learn anything new."

* * *

"There you are!" Jillian exclaimed as Danny walked into the Delines' kitchen an hour or so later. Setting a plate of food down on the counter, the older woman motioned for Danny to take a seat at one of the bar stools. "I was going to let Ed have it if he didn't make you come home by now." She shook her head disapprovingly at McCoy. "Not that I think you should have left in the first place…"

"Probably shouldn't have." Danny meekly nodded, sitting down. "How's Delinda?"

"She was roaming around here a little while ago," Jillian replied as Danny started into his food. "But I believe that she went back to sleep, which is what I want you to do the minute you finish eating, young man."

"Yes, ma'am." Danny grinned.

"And Danny?"

"Hmm?"

"Go ahead and move your things from the guest room into Delinda's room." Jillian smiled, "If Eddie gives you any grief, just let me know and I'll take care of it."

* * *

"Danny." a half-asleep Delinda smiled, opening her eyes to see what exactly had fallen into bed beside her, and discovering a shirtless Danny smiling back at her. "Daddy's going to kill you if he finds you in here, you know."

"Ah," Danny waved off, still grinning. "Your mom said that she would take care of that when the time comes, so…" He paused to kiss her on the top of the head. "I'm not worried."

"MMM." Delinda sighed, snuggling up against him. "How were things at the Montecito?"  
"It's still standing, and Mystique hasn't burned down." Danny joked, closing his eyes. "That's as far as I got before your father and Mary made me go home."

"I'll have to thank them." Delinda giggled before closing her own eyes.

* * *

Leaning his head back, Danny casually let the porch swing move gently on its own volition. It had been two days since Ed had presumably taken off somewhere with Jack Keller and the Professor, and he hadn't been heard from since. As McCoy closed his eyes, partly out of frustration and partly because of the afternoon sun beating down on him, he silently berated himself for not insisting that he go with Ed in case something had gone wrong.

"Well, you look like you've made yourself at home."

"Ed!" Danny exclaimed, immediately opening his eyes and sitting up. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Taking care of business." Ed replied with a tone of his voice that indicated that was all the information Danny was going to get. The graying man sighed as he sat down next to his protégé. "How have things been around here?"

"Well," Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Jillian hasn't been too happy about this whole situation."

"Didn't think she would be." Ed quietly nodded, "I suppose that Delinda isn't exactly tickled pink either?"

"She does think you could have handled it differently." Danny admitted, letting his hand drop.

"I handled it the way it needed to be handled." Ed replied, looking out into the dry, dusty backyard in front of them. "Got a couple of leads from McDougal that some…acquaintances are following up on."

"Acquaintances?" Danny scoffed.

"Former co-workers." Ed confirmed, referencing his CIA days. A smile suddenly crossed the older man's features. "Don't worry, Danny. They're just doing the grunt work. I still plan on us doing the fun part."

"Good." Danny smiled, following Ed's gaze. "And McDougal?"

"Ah, don't worry about him anymore." Ed replied, "Between Keller and me, we made sure that he won't be bothering us again…unless you want to track him down and finish whatever's between you two."

* * *

Turning his head away from the sunset lit Vegas strip below him, Danny sighed as he walked back over to his desk and unceremoniously sat down in the black leather chair behind it. Had it really only been six months since that conversation with Ed on the Delines' back patio? So much had changed in McCoy's life that it seemed more to him like six years at times. Due to the circumstances surrounding the death of Mary's father, both Ed and Mary had left the city of Las Vegas, and their friends and family at the Montecito behind. Of course, Ed's departure meant that Danny had been promoted to President of Operations, which he found to be more work than just running Surveillance and Security…and some part of him couldn't help but think that Ed, wherever he was, was having a good laugh at his protégé's expense.

As if work and the still unresolved disappearance of Henderson wasn't enough stress, Delinda and Danny were now expecting their first child, and the thought of the baby to made him yearn for Ed and Mary even more. Ed would probably have some fatherly advice to give the clueless Danny, while Mary would lend a sympathetic ear to both father and mother.

"Yeah?" Danny heard himself answer automatically as the sound of someone knocking on the door registered in his consciousness. The brown-haired man looked up to see Mitch wheeling himself inside the office. "Oh. Hey, Mitch."

"The quarterly reports you wanted, Mr. President." Mitch said, setting a stack of papers on Danny's desk. McCoy detected a hint of teasing in the wheelchair-bound man's voice, but he expected it as both Mitch and Mike liked to give him a hard time about being promoted.

"More paperwork." Danny sighed, "Thanks."

"You all right, buddy?" Mitch asked, "You seem out of it."

"I'm fine." Danny waved off, especially after catching sight of A.J. Cooper, the Montecito's new owner, standing in the doorway. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay." an unsure Mitch replied, turning and heading for the doorway. Cooper simply smiled at him as he passed, heading into the office. Danny got along well enough with Cooper, who like himself was a former Marine, but the dark-haired, moustached man was even harder to read at times than Ed had been.

"So…" Cooper said, sitting down opposite of Danny. His eyes watching McCoy's every move carefully.

"So?" Danny replied, unsure of what he wanted. His question was met by no verbal response; just a long, hard stare. Danny shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "What?"

"So, when were you planning on telling me about the whole Henderson situation?" Cooper asked casually.

"Henderson?" Danny repeated, cursing himself for not telling the other man sooner. However, both he and Mike had agreed that they shouldn't bother him with what they felt was personal business between themselves and Ed. "What…"

"Don't." Cooper interrupted with a wave of his hand, "You know, I have to give Ed Deline credit. He really does live up to his reputation. I wasn't able to find out everything that happened between you, him, and this Henderson guy, but I found out enough." He leaned back in his chair and looked at Danny square in the eye. "Fill me in?"

To be continued....


End file.
